Appeal No. 1999-2845 Page 15
Application No. 08/495,471
to a person having ordinary skill in the art from the applied
prior art. 3
With regard to claim 61, it is clear to us that the
subject matter of claim 61 (i.e., a latticework of glass
fibers surrounding walls of the ships, wherein the latticework
has a hydrophobic binder coating) is not suggested by the
applied prior art. The examiner has not alleged that the
subject matter of claim 61 would have been obvious at the time
the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in
the art from the applied prior art. In this regard, we note
that the examiner has not pointed to any teaching in the
applied prior art of a latticework of glass fibers wherein the
latticework has a hydrophobic binder coating.
3While the examiner has stated (final rejection, p. 4)
that "[t]he use of an 'inert gas' is deemed old and no
teaching is deemed necessary," the examiner never determined
that adding an inert gas chamber in Held's tank would have
been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person
having ordinary skill in
the art.
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