Ex parte KING - Page 5




             Appeal No. 1998-3054                                                                                 
             Application 08/770,888                                                                               


             sufficient to establish a prima facie case of obviousness.                                           
             See In re Fritch, 972 F.2d 1260, 1266, 23 USPQ2d 1780, 1783                                          
             (Fed. Cir. 1992).  The examiner must explain why the prior art                                       
             would have suggested to one of ordinary skill in the art the                                         
             desirability of the modification.  See Fritch, 972 F.2d at                                           
             1266, 23 USPQ2d at 1783-84.                                                                          
                    King teaches that his apparatus is uniquely designed to                                       
             enhance the mixing of a low viscosity component such as a                                            
             colorant or dye into a high viscosity fluid stream such as a                                         
             polymer melt (col. 1, lines 9-12), causes additive emanating                                         
             from a frustrum to be distributed as thin radial sheets,                                             
             thereby producing a larger interfacial surface area between                                          
             the additive and the main component flow (col. 6, lines 11-                                          
             16), and provides an annular gap which enables a portion of                                          
             the main flow to travel through the annular gap outside and                                          
             around the biscuit and thereby prevent the downstream or                                             
             output additive sheets from contacting the conduit sidewalls                                         
             (col. 6, lines 38-42).                                                                               
                    King’s disclosed use of the apparatus, therefore, is much                                     
             different than mixing water into superheated steam.  The                                             


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