Appeal No. 2003-0060
Application 09/236,718
pressure liquid stream which causes the fibers to become
entangled (specification, page 16). Pikes’ methods for splitting
the fibers include spraying the fibers with hot water or steam
such that the hot water or steam is rapidly applied to the
fibers, and Pike teaches that the fibers can be hydroentangled to
form a nonwoven fabric (col. 8, lines 33-38 and 45-46; col. 9,
lines 33-39 and 43-46). Thus, it reasonably appears that Pike’s
entangled polyamide-polyester fibers are the same or
substantially the same as those of the appellants.
The appellants argue that Nakamura teaches that his fibers
are split using a high pressure water stream, and that this
disclosure teaches away from combining Nakamura and Pike (brief,
page 7). Nakamura teaches that his fibers are split using “high-
pressure jet sprays of water or the like” (page 4). As discussed
above, Pike teaches that his fibers can be split by rapidly
spraying hot water or steam onto the fibers. Thus, the
references would have indicated, to one of ordinary skill in the
art, that the incompatible polymer combinations used by Pike
would be suitable for making Nakamura’s nonwoven web using
Nakamura’s fiber splitting method.
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