Appeal No. 2003-1945
Application No. 08/240,877
claim 66 (Paper No. 59). The examiner entered the amendment,
issued an answer (Paper No. 60), noted a reply brief (Paper No.
62) filed by the appellants and forwarded the application to this
Board for review of the current rejections of claims 34 through
38, 40 through 74 and 78 through 81.
This is the second appeal to this Board involving the
instant application. The first appeal (1999-0274) resulted in a
decision (Paper No. 31) adverse to the appellants.1
THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a filtering face mask having an
exhalation valve. Representative claim 78 reads as follows:
78. A filtering face mask that comprises:
(a) a mask body that is adapted to fit over the nose and
mouth of a person and that has a filtering layer for filtering
air that passes through the mask body; and
(b) an exhalation valve that is attached to the mask body,
which exhalation valve comprises:
(i) a valve seat that comprises an orifice, a seal
surface surrounding the orifice, and a flap retaining surface;
and
(ii) a single flexible flap that has a stationary
portion and one free portion and a circumferential edge that
includes stationary and free segments, the stationary segment of
1 The patentability issues in the instant appeal differ
significantly from those in the earlier appeal due to changes in
the record involving the subject matter claimed by the
appellants, the prior art relied on by the examiner to reject the
claims and the argument and affidavit/declaration evidence
submitted by the appellants to challenge the rejections.
2
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