Appeal No. 2003-0318
Application 09/377,262
At the outset, we note that it is unclear as to precisely
how the examiner’s proposes to combine the teachings of Jones and
Singer to achieve the claimed invention. It may be that the
examiner is suggesting that it would have been obvious to have
used two layers of Jones’ polypropylene electret fibers instead
of one layer to construct an oily-mist resistant electret filter
based on Singer’s disclosure of using a multilayer laminate
structure in constructing a high efficiency breathing mask
fabric. Alternatively, it may be that the examiner is proposing
that Singer’s first web (see Singer, claim 1) be combined with a
layer of Jones’ polypropylene electret fibers to achieve the
claimed filter media. However, regardless of how the examiner
has combined the teachings of Jones and Singer, it is clear that
the examiner has concluded that the resultant filter would
inherently exhibit the features of removable efficiency and
initial quality factor as recited in claim 1. See examiner’s
answer, page 4 (“[A] filter fabric as shown by Jones and Singer
et al. would have the same test results as Appellant’s invention,
because both filters have the same laminate structure and are
made from the same meltblown polypropylene electret
microfibers.”)
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