Appeal No. 2006-0449
Application 10/232,644
immersion to freezing may be taken to cover both time periods (marination prior to and after
sealing, but before freezing), the time periods recited in claims 1 and 3 are on the order of a
minute, and certainly no more than two minutes” (brief, page 3). We note here that appellant has
reversed the specification Examples, identifying the “second test,” represented by the second
Example Figure 2, as the “first example (Figure 1)” (see specification, pages 12-13).
We find that the methods encompassed by the specified steps of claims 1 and 13, as we
interpreted these claims above, appear to correspond to the first specification Example in which
the salmon “pieces were marinated for 25 minutes in balsamic vinegar and placed in snug
aluminum cups,” and then frozen in brine, with the result that, “[a]s can be seen in the table of
Figure 1, the thawed weight of the pieces of the samples frozen according to the invention was
an average of 2% greater than the thawed weight of the samples frozen conventionally” (page 8,
ll. 2-4, and page 12, ll. 3-11; emphasis supplied). It is explained that “[t]he difference can be
attributed to cell damage and purge loss during conventional freezing,” and “[a]s such, any
further marination of the conventionally frozen samples would involved [sic, involve] damaged
cells in a marinade adulterated by purge” (page 12, ll. 11-13). We find no explanation why
“snug aluminum cups” are used instead of “vacuum sealed bags.”
We find that the methods encompassed by claims 3 and 15 appear to correspond to the
second specification Example in which the salmon pieces were prepared similar to the first
Example, including “placed in snug aluminum cups” not “vacuum sealed bags,” except that
“marination prior to freezing was reduced to two minutes in balsamic vinegar, i.e., substantially
eliminated,” and then frozen in brine, wherein “[a]fter freezing, the samples were thawed out and
marinated for an additional 20 minutes subsequent to thawing” and apparently prior to cooking
(page 8, ll. 5-8, and page 12, ll. 15-18; emphasis supplied). The results reported in specification
Figure 2 are stated to show that “the thawed weight of the samples frozen according to the
invention was . . . an average of 2% greater than the weight of the samples frozen
conventionally” (page 12, ll. 20-22). It is disclosed that “the weight of both sets of samples was
2% greater than the corresponding weights” in the samples in the first Example, “[t]hat is,
substantially eliminating the marination time prior to freezing reduces the weight loss and yields
American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition 766.
- 7 -
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007