Appeal 2006-2777
Application 10/383,603
mold by flexing (Br. 2). Claim 1 is illustrative of the invention and is reproduced
below:
1. The method of making flakes or platelets of certain configurations
which comprises the steps of:
molding said flakes or platelets in a mold of material more flexible
than said flakes or platelets when solid and in wells in a surface of said mold
having said certain configuration;
flexing said mold to cause said surface to bend when said flakes or
platelets become solid therein so as to release said flakes or platelets from
said mold; and
said configuration desired for said flakes or platelets is obtained by
the step of molding said mold with the aid of a master having projections
and trenches of said configurations to provide an inverse replica of said
master.
The Examiner has relied upon the following references as evidence of
obviousness:
De Brocke US 2,505,947 May 2, 1950
Morris US 5,792,411 Aug. 11, 1998
Etzbach US 6,136,251 Oct. 24, 2000
Claims 1-4, 7, 9, 11 and 13-25 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
unpatentable over Etzbach in view of De Brocke and Morris (Answer 3). We
REVERSE this rejection for reasons stated below.
OPINION
The Examiner finds that Etzbach discloses making flakes or platelets of
certain configurations by molding the flakes in a “mold,” i.e., a flexible screen,
which screen the Examiner presumes would be more flexible than the flakes when
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