Appeal No. 1999-2423
Application 08/825,204
fluids are selected from air, water, heated air, steam and
chemical solutions, which indicates that the fluids need not
be all used together and that, therefore, no particular one of
these fluids is essential for obtaining the desired debonding.
The appellants define their chemical softening agent as
“any agent capable under specified conditions of softening or
swelling a material, for example, a binder material, via
chemical reaction or interaction therewith, for example via
interruption of the molecular forces in a polymeric matrix
resulting in an opening of its structure” (specification, page
4, lines 23-27).
The examiner has not established that a surfactant, which
the appellants preferably use in combination with their
chemical softening agent (specification, page 5, line 25 -
page 6, line 4), is a chemical softening agent within the
appellants’ definition of that term, or that one of ordinary
skill in the art would have considered Hagguist’s term
“chemical” to encompass materials which fall within the scope
of the appellants’ definition of “chemical softening agent”.
4
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007