Appeal No. 2000-1131 Page 4
Application No. 08/505,183
Claims 1, 4, 5, and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Hert in
view of Modern Plastics Encyclopedia.
Hert3 describes a multilayered article in which a layer of vulcanized elastomer, called
TPV (col. 1, lines 8-11), is directly adhered to a thermoplastic layer (col. 2, lines 32-35) by, for
example, overmolding or coextruding (col. 2, lines 27-31). Hert, therefore, describes the general
article structure and processing steps of claims 1, 4, 5 and 7.
Hert also suggests using elastomers of the claimed composition. The vulcanized
elastomer is functionalized, for example, with carboxylic, epoxy or amino groups or by halogens
(col. 4, lines 5-7). The elastomer may also contain epichlorohydrin rubbers (col. 4, line 30). The
elastomer contains a vulcanizing system and is vulcanized during blending (col. 3, lines 58-61).
According to Hert, the thermoplastic layer adhered to the elastomer layer may be selected
from, for example, semicrystalline polyesters (col. 6, line 5). According to Appellants’ claims,
the thermoplastic may be polybutylene terephthalate. While polybutylene terephthalate is not
specifically described by Hert, as evidenced by the Modern Plastics Encyclopedia, polybutylene
terephthalate was known to those of ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention as a
3 Hert is available as prior art under 35 U.S.C. § 102(e). Appellants have not perfected
their claim to the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 by filing a certified translation of their
French priority document. Because this application was filed piror to Nov. 29, 1999, a terminal
dislcaimer cannot be used to overcome this rejection as Hert qualifies as prior art under the
provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 102(e). See 35 U.S.C. § 103(c)(1999).
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