Appeal No. 2002-1222
Application 09/049,908
F.2d 1088, 1091-92, 165 USPQ 418, 421-22 (CCPA 1970); Ex parte Natale, 11 USPQ2d 1222,
1226-27 (Bd. Pat. App. & Int. 1989).
Therefore, on this record, the examiner has not established a prima facie case of
obviousness with respect to appealed claims 1 through 24, and accordingly, we reverse the
grounds of rejection with respect to these appealed claims.
The application of the applied prior art to the claimed methods encompassed by appealed
claims 25 and 29 requires different considerations because these claims do not contain the same
apparatus limitations as appealed claims 1 through 24. Thus, in order to review the examiner’s
application of prior art to these claims we must first interpret the language thereof by giving the
claim terms their broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the written description in the
specification as it would be interpreted by one of ordinary skill in this art, including the meaning
for claim terms established in the written description in the specification. See, e.g., In re Hyatt,
211 F.3d 1367, 1372, 54 USPQ2d 1664, 1667 (Fed. Cir. 2000); In re Morris, 127 F.3d 1048,
1054-55, 44 USPQ2d 1023, 1027 (Fed. Cir. 1997), In re Zletz, 893 F.2d 319, 321-22, 13
USPQ2d 1320, 1322 (Fed. Cir. 1989).
The plain language of appealed claim 25 specifies a continuous method of finishing any
kind of tissue web without regard to the method of producing the same, which includes at least
one splicing step, comprising at least the sequential steps of (1) partially unwinding a first tissue
web from a first parent roll; (2) transporting the first tissue web to a finishing unit comprising
rolls defining at least one finishing unit nip; (3) substantially continuously impacting the first
tissue web in the finishing unit nip while the same is unwound from the first parent roll; (4)
partially unwinding a second tissue web from a second parent roll; (5) transporting the second
tissue web to the finishing unit; (6) maintaining the first and second tissue webs moveable
relative to one another upstream of the finishing unit; (7) simultaneously unwinding both the
first and second tissue webs from the first and second parent rolls and passing the webs through
the finishing unit nip to bond the webs together; and (8) substantially continuously impacting the
second tissue web in the finishing unit nip while the second tissue web is unwound from the
second parent roll.
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