Appeal No. 1997-3267
Application 08/324,386
and 6 stand or fall together, that claims 8 and 10 stand or fall
together, that claims 9 and 11 stand or fall together and that
claims 5 and 7 each stand or fall alone.
We will first address the rejection of claims 4
through 6 under 35 U.S.C. § 112, first paragraph. The examiner
objects to the specification as originally filed for failing to
provide a basis for “the mixture of liquid and solid materials
[being] added into the filter box at a pressure higher than
atmospheric” (answer, page 3). As a result of the objection, the
examiner rejects claims 4 through 6 under 35 U.S.C. § 112, first
paragraph, which claims include the limitation of supplying a
mixture of liquid and solid materials at higher than atmospheric
pressure into the pressure chamber on an upper side of said
filter belt. The appellant’s argument, in response, is that
one of ordinary skill in the art would
understand from the specification that the
mixture for separation is maintained under
relatively higher pressure both when supplied
to the pressure chamber and within the
pressure chamber itself. The fact that there
may be other methods of supplying the mixture
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007