Appeal No. 1998-0215
Application No. 08/052,671
The reference does suggest inclusion of a surfactant
in the resin, and as such would have suggested
to the skilled artisan that the cloth [would] be
saturated.
Appellant does not dispute the above finding and
conclusion set forth by the examiner. See Reply Brief, page
6. Appellant only argues that the claimed melting point
limitation is not taught by Yoshimi. Id. However, as
indicated supra, we find that Yoshimi teaches at least one
heat-resistant thermoplastic resin having the claimed melting
point. Accordingly, we affirm the examiner’s § 103 rejection
of claim 4 as unpatentable over the disclosure of Yoshimi.
With respect to claim 18, the examiner takes the position
(Answer, page 5) that
the use of any known thermoplastic of the type
suggested by the reference, including PETG
would have been obvious to the skilled artisan as the
use of known, commercially available materials of
the type suggested by the reference.
As argued by appellant (Reply Brief, page 6), we find no
teaching or suggestion that polyethylene terephthalate glycol
(PETG) is useful for the purpose mentioned in Yoshimi. Thus,
we agree with appellant that the examiner has not established
a prima facie case of obviousness regarding the claimed
23
Page: Previous 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007