Appeal No. 1997-3497 Page 7
Application No. 08/312,295
Shiga exemplifies the obtention of films of 22 micron thickness
after stretching five times in the longitudinal and lateral
directions (See example 6 of Shiga). The film is stretched while
heating at 150/C. Similar to appellants' product film, Shiga
discloses that the stretched film has good tensile strength and
may be used in forming composite films of high stiffness that are
useful in automatic packaging (column 7, lines 12-34).
With regard to appealed claim 1 and the claims depending
therefrom, the examiner acknowledges that Shiga does not
explicitly describe the modulus of elasticity of their film
structure in the longitudinal and traverse directions and the
water vapor transmission properties thereof. However, as
determined by the examiner (answer, pages 4 and 5), Shiga does
form their product film using a highly isotactic polypropylene
that is substantially free of low molecular weight hydrocarbons
and uses stretching ratio' substantially in accordance with the
stretching ratio' disclosed by appellants to be necessary to
obtain the claimed properties (paragraph bridging pages 5 and 6
of appellants' specification). Hence, on this record, the
examiner has reasonably established that simply following the
teachings of Shiga would have resulted in a film product that
would have obviously possessed water vapor transmission and
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007