Appeal No. 2005-1574
Application 09/753,428
surface appears to be raised, that is, in relief, with respect to the other portions of the board
having a surface below the overall flat surface or plane of the board.2 Indeed, appellants disclose
in the written description in the specification that the “surface embossed texture” can result when
(1) the extruded material is “slowly cooled” because “[s]ome of the bubbles migrate to the
surface and burst to form an embossed texture on the surface of the web before the extruded
material is solidified,” stating that “[m]ost of the bubbles trap inside the extruded material when
the thermoplastic mass is cooled and solidified,” and (2) rollers having a “pattern-embossed
surface” are used (specification, e.g., page 34, l. 10, to page 35, l. 9; emphasis supplied).
We find that the amount of foaming in the skin and the core, including that represented
by “some” migrating bubbles in forming the “surface embossed texture” and by “most” tapped
bubbles apparently in the core as disclosed, is dependent on the nature as well as the amount of
vinyl chloride foaming agent relative to the other two specified ingredients in the mixture in step
“A.)” and any additional ingredient(s) which can be present as permitted by the transitional term
“comprising.” Indeed, the foaming agent forms only about 4.7% to about 11.1% of the weight of
the mixture based on the limitations for this ingredient in step “A.)” without any additional
ingredient(s). Indeed, it is the other ingredients in the mixture specified in step “A.)” which
form the bulk of the product including its “core” through which the “bubbles migrate to the
surface” and in which “bubbles trap.”
Thus, we interpret the claim language “synthetic wood-like product having an external
foam skin and a foam core” with the “surface embossed texture” and the specified Shore
Hardness as prepared by the limitation in step “E.)” of “slowly cooling” the web or foamed
board “extruded product to create a synthetic wood-like product having an external foam skin
and a foam core,” wherein the “said cooling is performed in a roller system of a plurality of
contra-rotating rollers” to encompass products wherein the surface of the “foam skin” is
embossed because of whole and burst foam bubbles on the surface; products which contain
foam bubbles at the surface some of which have burst through the surface; and products where
2 See generally, the terms “emboss” and “relief” in The American Heritage Dictionary, Second
College Edition 448, 1044 (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1982), and the term
“embossing” in McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms 672 (5th ed., Sybil P.
Parker, ed., New York, McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1994).
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