Appeal No. 2006-1391
Application No. 10/168,806
van Reis 5,256,294 Oct. 26, 1993
Millipore, Catalog on Pellicon® Tangential Flow Filtration Cassettes, March 1999.
Claims 1-6 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over van
Reis (Answer, page 3). Based on the totality of the record, we affirm the rejection on
appeal. However, since we advance a rationale significantly different from the examiner
in the Answer, we denominate this “affirmance” as a new ground of rejection pursuant to
the provisions of 37 CFR § 41.50(b)(2004) to allow appellants the option of reopened
prosecution or rehearing. Our reasons follow.
OPINION
The examiner finds that van Reis discloses a cross-flow filter device having
membranes with feed inlets, permeate outlets, and concentrate outlets, where the
membranes have multiple plies or a plurality of two-ply membranes, with pore sizes
decreasing from the feed side ply to the permeate side ply (Answer, page 3). With
regard to the cassette form of structure, the examiner finds that van Reis teaches use of
Millipore Pellicon ultrafiltration systems, and cites the Millipore catalog as evidence of
this structure (id.; see also pages 7-8).
The examiner finds that the claims differ from the teachings of van Reis in that
the reference does not teach the ratio of pore size of the front side ply to the backside
ply as 1.3 to 5 (id.). However, the examiner concludes that it would have been obvious
to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of appellants’ invention “that such a ratio can
be established between the layers (or plies) of membranes ... depending on the particle
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