Appeal No. 1997-4430
Application 08/421,463
Claim 39 is drawn to a replacement pipe product and
requires, inter alia, a pipe that is substantially rigid at
ambient temperature and in a reduced form having a flattened
and longitudinally folded shape, with the bulbous end of a
shorter leg nesting behind the bulbous end of a longer leg to
minimize the overall thickness of the folded pipe. Claim 65
(and claim 66 dependent thereon) recites pipe shape
limitations comparable to those set forth in claim 39, and
additionally includes the requirement of a memory for a
reduced non-circular form, as earlier discussed relative to
claim 61.
We note, at this point, that appellant’s specification
informs us (pages 20 and 21) that the preferred form of folded
pipe depicted in Fig. 8 includes the important feature of
bulbous fold and leg ends for preventing the folded portions
of the pipe from splitting when folded, which might occur with
a pipe such as that shown in Fig. 3. The specification (page 5
5 The Fig. 3 embodiment taught by appellant appears to be
comparable to the Fig. 1D embodiment of Laurent.
8
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