Appeal No. 1999-0023
Application No. 08/374,907
Inc. V. Industrial Crating & Packing, Inc., 731 F.2d 818, 826,
221 USPQ 568, 574 (Fed. Cir. 1984)).
2. Claim 3 is an article claim which incorporates a product by
process limitation wherein a thin film or fabric has been
“treated with a substantially non-aqueous composition”. If a
product or article is the same as or obvious from a product or
article of the prior art, a claim is unpatentable even though the
prior art product was made by a different process. See In re
Thorpe, 777 F.2d, 695, 697, 227 USPQ 964, 966 (Fed. Cir. 1985).
The examiner should compare the characteristics of the resulting
article of appellant’s claim 3, for example, and with those of
prior art articles that may be made by other processes to
ascertain if the final article characteristics are the same,
keeping in mind that an aqueous solution treatment may
nevertheless yield a non-aqueous composition on the final (dried)
article.
In summary, this panel of the board has:
7
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007