Appeal No. 2004-2292
Application 09/747,537
alpha-butylene and beta-butylene, respectively.7 The open-ended term “comprising” used
in defining this film component opens the claim to include shrink films in which this layer
contains any amount of any manner of additional polymer(s) as well as other materials,
such as additives for film and processing characteristics, that would not prevent the multi-
layer polymeric film from having the shrink characteristics specified in the claim as
discussed above.
There is no limitation stated in appealed claim 1 with respect to the materials
which make up the “second skin layer,” and thus, this film component can comprise any
manner of polymer(s) and/or any manner of other materials, such as additives for film and
processing characteristics, that would not prevent the multi-layer polymeric film from
having the shrink characteristics specified in the claim as discussed above.
The “core layer” comprises at least a polymer of “polypropylene,” any manner of
“a polymeric modifier” and any manner of “a hydrocarbon resin,” and the open-ended
term “comprising” used in defining this film component opens the claim to include any
amount of any manner of additional polymer(s) as well as other materials, such as
additives for film and processing characteristics, that would not prevent the multi-layer
polymeric film from having the shrink characteristics specified in the claim as discussed
above. Each of the latter two ingredients must be present “up to about 15 percent” of the
weight of this layer, which in the plain language of the claim requires the presence of at
least some amount, however small, up to the 15 weight percent limit, and the weight of
any additional polymers and/or other materials along with the weight of the polypropylene
polymer must be considered in determining the amount of the “polymeric modifier” and
the “hydrocarbon resin” which can be present.
7 See, e.g., The Condensed Chemical Dictionary 157-58 (10th ed., Gessner G. Hawley,
ed., New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1981).
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