Appeal No. 1997-0569
Application No. 08/150,559
Looking first at the examiner's rejection of claims 7, 9,
13 and 15 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 based on Wright and Lewis, we
note that representative claim 13 is directed to a roofing
material which comprises a man-made composition substrate and
granulated mineral-containing matter forming a surface coating
on said substrate, wherein the granulated matter comprises
slag having an initial elemental iron content of about 15% to
about 70% by weight, said iron having been heated to a
temperature of about 450°C to about 1000°C for a period of
time sufficient to oxidize said iron and cause a change in
color of said granulated matter.
According to appellants (brief, page 4), the roofing material
of claim 13 differs from conventional roofing materials “in
the manner in which the desired coloration is achieved.”
Appellants concede that conventional roofing materials include
granules which are artificially colored by applying a
pigmented coating to a base rock material and also that it is
known in the art that base rocks which already possess the
desired natural coloration can be used as roofing granules
without having to apply a pigmented surface coating. By
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