Appeal No. 2000-1455
Application 08/911,913
limitation which carries little if any weight in a claim to a
known product (answer, page 4).
We do not find any disclosure in Hausch itself of a
thermoplastic elastomer, but as the examiner points out, the
attached abstract states that “Various types of resin are
suitable, e.g., PVC and other thermoplastics.” However,
assuming for the purpose of this decision that the PVC
disclosed by Hauser is inherently a thermoplastic, and further
assuming that Hausch’s disclosure that PVC is suitable for his
invention constitutes a disclosure that it would also be
suitable for the prior art mats disclosed by him at pages 6 to
7, there is still no disclosure of a thermoplastic elastomer.
The examiner’s assertion that “‘elastomer’ is definitive of
virtually any resilient plastic” (answer, page 6) is not well
taken, since “thermoplastic elastomer” (TPE) is a term of
art. Since claim 1 requires a TPE and Hausch does not5
expressly or inherently disclose it, claim 1 is not
anticipated. In re Schreiber, 128 F.3d 1473, 1477, 44 USPQ2d
5 See, e.g., page 7.1 of the Handbook. See also 8 Kirk-
Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology 626 (3d Ed. 1979)
(copy attached).
5
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007