Appeal No. 1997-0229
Application No. 08/039,260
component” as defined in the appellants’ specification at page
4.
The disclosure of Maxham ‘258 is similar to Maxham ‘599,
but it is even further removed from the appellants’ claimed
invention in that the long fibers are separated from the short
fibers and clay prior to introduction of the slurry into a
hydrocyclone system (Fig. 1). This, of course, is not what is
recited in appealed claim 11.
Bauman discloses a process of recovering and treating the
filler and fiber fines of sewage from a paper-making machine
(column 1, lines 7-9). According to Bauman, the process
comprises a preferred step of removing long fibers from the
sewage, partially dewatering the resulting mixture, reacting
the mixture with a chlorine-bearing chemical, whereby the
drainage rate of the fiber fines and fillers is improved, and
then using the treated mixture as part of the furnish or feed
in a papermaking machine (column 3, lines 24-37).
While the examiner may have established a reasonable
factual basis upon which to conclude that one of ordinary
skill in the art would have found it prima facie obvious to
recycle the short fiber and clay component in the Maxham
8
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