Appeal No. 2004-0606
Application 09/781,730
“converted into a dry, flexible, semi-cured state”. We find no
evidence of record that those of ordinary skill in the art used
“dry” and “semi-cured” in combination to describe a semi-cured
solventless liquid resin. The only relevant evidence relied upon
by the appellants and the examiner is Abe which discloses that as
of 3½ years before Johnson’s earliest effective filing date, all
epoxy resins used to impregnate fibrous base materials, which is
how Johnson uses his liquid epoxy resin (example 1), were
dissolved in a solvent (col. 1, lines 22-31). Thus, the evidence
indicates that one of ordinary skill in the art would have
considered Johnson’s phrase, “converted into a dry, flexible,
semi-cured state”, to mean that both drying, by solvent removal,
and semi-curing have taken place.
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