Appeal 2006-1543
Application 10/239,769
16 of the Specification disclose the use of a film of polytetrafluoroethylene
(PTFE) between the coated surface of the paper web and the “pressing steel
platen” and that nowhere in the Specification is there any disclosure that the
claimed method includes a step of spraying PTFE onto the coated paper web
or onto the belt (Reply Br. 2).
We do not find Appellants’ argument persuasive. We agree that the
original Specification does not seem to disclose spraying PTFE onto the
paper web or onto the belt, but this fact is not relevant to the issue at hand.
What is more relevant is that the original Specification “urges the use of
suitable covering [of PTFE] . . . on the face of the steel belt of the belt dryer
facing the web surface.” (original Specification 10:16-19). The language of
the original Specification parallels the language of original claim 8 in that
the PTFE “is applied to the surface of the belt of the belt dryer facing the
web” whereas, in the embodiment of Figure 2, the treatment agent is applied
to the surface of the belt not facing the web. This fact along with the fact
that claim 8 recites “a treatment agent” rather than “said treatment agent”
and that claim 1 uses the terminology “said treatment agent” when referring
to the earlier recited treatment agent (web coating of claim 1) provides
further evidence that original claim 8 is referring to a different agent.
With regard to claim 7, it is reasonable to interpret this claim as
referring to belt or roll transfer means located upstream of the dryer belt.
This reading of the claim is in conformance with the disclosure that “[a]n
applicator apparatus is located in front of the belt dryer, upstream thereof in
the travel direction of the web” as recited in the original Specification
(original Specification 7:1-2) and the disclosure that “[t]he treatment agent
may be applied directly to the web surface, as is the case in the exemplifying
8
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