Appeal No. 96-1548
Application 08/288,127
The examiner has relied upon the following references as
evidence of obviousness:
Ohki 58-18055 Feb. 5, 1982
(Published Japanese Kokai)
Oki 62-22612 Jan. 30, 1987
(Published Japanese Kokai)2
Claims 11-24 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
unpatentable over Oki in view of Ohki (Answer, page 3). We 3
reverse this rejection for reasons which follow.
OPINION
The process of appealed claim 11 recites the limitations
of “simultaneously directing leading ends of the continuous
strands and water at a temperature sufficient to blanch or
cook the strands into an inlet end of a pipe” which “descends
vertically” from the inlet to the outlet “so that the water
2We rely upon and cite from the English translations of Ohki and Oki provided by
the Patent & Trademark Office (both now made of record, see also the Advisory Action
date Aug. 8, 1995, Paper No. 12). We do not rely upon the English translation of Oki
provided by appellants as an attachment to the Information Disclosure Statement dated
Apr. 13, 1994, Paper No. 9, or the English abstract of Ohki of record.
3The examiner and appellants mistakenly list the applied references as “Ohki I”
and “Ohki II” (see the Brief, page 5, and the Answer, page 2). However, the English
translations of record show that Japanese Kokai 62-22612 discloses “Nobuo Oki” as the
sole inventor and Japanese Kokai 58-18055 discloses “Yasuo Ohki” as the sole inventor.
Accordingly, we will refer to these references as “Oki” and “Ohki”, respectively.
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