Appeal No. 1997-1797
Application No. 08/198,936
All of the claims on appeal1 stand finally rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Cass in view of the
Japanese reference.
We refer to the brief and to the answer for a complete
exposition of the opposing viewpoints expressed by the
appellants and by the examiner concerning the above noted
rejection.
OPINION
For the reasons set forth below, we cannot sustain this
rejection.
The pivotal consideration on this appeal involves claim
interpretation and in particular the proper interpretation to
place upon step (b) of appealed independent claim 1 which
requires “forming multicomponent filaments having a core of
the suspension and having a viscose sheath which contains
cellulose xanthate.” According to the examiner’s
interpretation of this claim, “the core need not have a
1The statement of rejection which appears on page 5 of the
answer reflects that less than all of the appealed claims are
included in the rejection before us. However, this appears to
be an inadvertent error on the examiner’s part, and,
particularly in light of our disposition of this appeal, the
error is harmless.
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