Appeal No. 1996-3770 Page 6
Application No. 08/412,834
a treated alloy strip having substantially uniform formability
including a 180° R/T bend ratio of no greater than about 1.4 in
both the parallel and perpendicular rolling directions.
According to appellants, the R/T bend test measures
formability (specification, pages 12-14) with the 180° bend
test being more severe than a 90° bend test and resulting in
comparatively lower numeric values when testing a sample with
the 180° test (brief, pages 3 and 4, and Ikushima declaration,
item 10). The examiner has not specifically contested
appellants' description of the bend tests.
The examiner acknowledges that each of the principal
references utilized in all of the stated rejections (Sawyer and
Ikushima) teach the use of an annealing temperature that is
higher than the claimed temperature range of about 1500-1600°F
(answer, page 4). According to the examiner, it would have
been obvious to use a lower annealing temperature as claimed in
either of Ikushima or Sawyer since "... the claimed ranges and
prior art do not overlap but are close enough that one skilled
in the art would have expected them to have the same
properties..." (answer, page 4). In our view, however, the
case law cited by the examiner in support of this proposition,
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