Appeal No. 1999-2544 Page 16
Application No. 08/796,513
circumferential surface of the fibers and Lambert does not
teach or suggest hollow fibers (brief, page 8), the examiner
argues, with respect to Zwaan, that it is not clear what would
constitute an electrical heating means as claimed by the
applicant and, with respect to Lambert's failure to teach
hollow fibers, what would constitute a hollow fiber (answer,
page 5).
Based on our analysis and a review of Zwaan and Lambert,
it is our opinion that neither Zwaan nor Lambert teaches or
suggests an electrical heating means for electrically heating
the fibers on their outer circumferential surface as recited
in claim 1 on appeal, or a heating means for directly and
substantially evenly heating an outer circumferential surface
of said hollow fibers as recited in claim 12 on appeal.
Zwaan's heating element (50) is inside the water compartment
(30) (Fig. 1) and, as suggested at, for example, page 1, lines
16-17 and at page 2 lines 9-10, the heating means is
energizable to heat the water. Thus, Zwaan teaches using
heated water to heat the interior of the microporous sheet and
does not electrically heat the fibers as recited in the
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