Appeal No. 1996-1878
Application No. 07/982,203
the sole and the shoe upper and cooling, Gilch also requires
that the adhesive is subjected to moisture and heating before
pressing the sole and the shoe upper together. König, for
instance, applies components of the adhesive composition with
a two-component spraying apparatus, and passes the coated
sheet through a drying channel to form an adhesive-coated
sheet that is dry to the touch (column 4, lines 50 et seq. and
column 5, lines 18 et seq.). As for Rumon, we agree with
appellant that the referenced disclosure would not have
suggested a modification of the Gilch method for bonding a
sole to a shoe upper, since Rumon purposefully formulates a
high viscosity adhesive composition which does not diffuse
through adjacent layers of fabric and the like (column 2,
lines 38 et seq.). Furthermore, insofar as the examiner
concedes that the adhesive compositions of Rumon and König are
not the same as Gilch's adhesive composition, it is incumbent
upon the examiner to establish why it would have been obvious
for one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the method of
Gilch in light of the disclosures of Rumon and König. We have
not ignored the examiner's statement at page 6 of the Answer
that the appealed claims do not preclude the presence of
additional steps by virtue of the "comprising" language, but
it is not proper to read into the claims specific steps that
are not disclosed or suggested in the supporting specification
-5-
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007