Appeal No. 1998-3202
Application No. 08/456,294
According to the specification, reinforcing fillers include talc, chalk, glass fibers and glass beads.
See Specification, p. 4, lines 8-9.
Kishida discloses a method for preparing molded products from polyolefin resin
compositions comprising a modified polyolefin and reinforcing materials. Examples of
polyolefins used to prepare the modified polyolefin include polypropylene and
ethylene/propylene/diene copolymer. The reinforcing materials disclosed in Kishida are of two
types, fibrous materials and powdery materials. Fibrous materials include glass fibers and carbon
fibers having a length of 5 mm or less, preferably 0.01 to 3 mm, and powdery materials include
talc and calcium carbonate. According to Kishida, the reinforcing materials may be used singly
or in combination in an amount of 5 to 80% by weight of the modified polyolefin. See col. 4,
lines 3-20.
The examiner explains (Answer, pp. 3-4):
It is acknowledged that the amount of carbon fibers added to the claimed
composition is not expressly disclosed in the reference. The instantly claimed
amount is 0.3 to 3% by weight of the carbon fibers relative to the total weight of
the composition. This patent teaches a minimum amount of 5 weight percent
based on the modified polyolefin. The examiner maintains however that this
amount is not simply the amount of the reinforcement fibrous materials of which
the carbon fiber is preferred. When referring to the amount of the reinforcements
utilized at column 4 line 18, it is clear that the reinforcement material is referring
to the powdery reinforcement as well as the fibrous reinforcement. This is to say
that the total amount of the combination of reinforcing materials is 5 weight
percent and up. This is to say that one could incorporate 1, 2 or 3% of the carbon
fibers as stated at column 4 line 3 in combination with higher amounts of the other
reinforcements as stated at column 4 line 11 and thus arrive at a composition
having greater than 5 weight percent of reinforcements and still having the
instantly claimed amount of carbon fibers. The Examiner maintains that this
interpretation is well within the scope of the reference and that absent a clear
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