Appeal No. 2006-1611
Application No. 10/669,771
for removing BOD and suspended solids from a high volume
wastewater stream comprising the claimed steps of piping high
volume raw, unsettled wastewater to a deep bed filter without
pretreatment in a facultative zone, filtering the high volume
wastewater by filtration through the deep bed filter, and
backwashing the deep bed filter. The principal contention of
appellants is that Nebolsine does not describe the claimed step
of piping the raw wastewater directly to the deep bed filter.
Although, as pointed out by the examiner and acknowledged by
appellants, the claimed process includes screening the unsettled
wastewater prior to piping to the deep bed filter, it is
appellants' contention that the specification defines the
claimed term "directly" as excluding the narrow or fine
screening of Nebolsine. Appellants point to the paragraph
bridging pages 5 and 6 of the present specification for their
position that the claimed step of piping directly includes
course screening but excludes fine screening. Appellants state
that "[i]n this paragraph the Applicant goes on to explicitly
state that 'fine screening is not required'" (page 3 of Reply
Brief, second paragraph).
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Last modified: November 3, 2007