Appeal 2006-2472
Application 10/451,098
within the meaning of Section 103 in view of the applied prior art. Accordingly,
we will sustain the Examiner’s rejection for the reason set forth in the Answer,
which we incorporate herein, and we add the following for emphasis only.
Appellant does not dispute the Examiner’s factual determination that Hurley,
like Appellant, discloses a process of coating plastic pellets with a pigmented, or
colored, thermoplastic resin by mixing the components in an intensive mixer. The
sole argument advanced by Appellant is that, unlike the claimed process, “Hurley
clearly teaches and claims that heat energy is added to the process, to cause the
to-be-coated resin pellets to attain a ‘first temperature’ which is above the melt
temperature of the subsequently applied coating” (Br. 8-9). Appellant advances
this argument notwithstanding that it is acknowledged that Hurley expressly
teaches that the melting of the pigmented plastic may be accomplished by “the heat
generated from the friction and shearing of the materials during processing” (col.
10, ll. 59-61). The entirety of the relevant Hurley disclosure reads as follows:
The materials are then processed at a temperature at which the coating or the
polymeric component is a melt but at which the pellets remain solid. This
may be accomplished by adding the coating or polymeric component as a
melt, by applying heat to the processing container after the ingredients are
loaded, by the heat generated from the friction and shearing of the materials
during processing, or by any combination of these. [Col. 10, ll. 54-61.]
Hence, it is abundantly clear from the Hurley disclosure that the reference process
may either add heat to melt the pigmented plastic or not add heat but utilize the
heat generated by the friction of the pigmented plastic and the pellets. As such, we
find no merit in Appellant’s argument that “it is clear that Hurley’s coating
composition is a melt when it is applied to the surfaces of the even hotter resin
pellets” (Br. 9, first paragraph, last sentence).
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