Appeal No. 1999-0700 Page 10
Application No. 08/590,580
agglomerated particles to form a densified skin substantially free of protruding fiber ends and fibrils and
drying the agglomerated particles. For example, shredded waste paper or smaller material, such as
reclaimed cellulose fiber or waste paper processed through a fine screen, is a suitable starting material
(column 3, line 64, to column 4, line 2). The phrase "reclaimed cellulose fiber" as used by Fleischer is a
general term which includes unused materials from primary tissue mills and other types of papermaking
processes and primarily contains short cellulose fibers which have passed through the forming wire of a
wet forming papermaking process (column 6, lines 14-19).
While Fleischer does disclose the use of processed waste paper and waste sludge from
papermaking processes generally as starting materials in making useful product such as animal litter,
Fleischer does not specifically disclose the use of "recycled fiber sludge" as used by appellant (i.e.,
sludge from waste water derived from a plant that processes waste paper into recycled fiber). Thus,
from our perspective, Fleischer adds little to the teachings of Kok with regard to the claimed starting
material and, in any event, would not have suggested the use of "recycled fiber sludge" as required by
claim 9.
Accordingly, we shall also reverse the examiner's rejection of claim 9 as being unpatentable
over Kok in view of Fleischer.
NEW GROUND OF REJECTION
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