Appeal No. 2006-3110 Page 4
Application No. 10/185,846
The Feeney patent addresses the problem of how to maintain the texture and
flavor of fried potato products made from dough containing dehydrated potato flakes.
See generally Feeney, columns 1-2. Feeney’s solution is to add water absorbent fibers
(“fibrous cellulosic materials”) to the dough. Id., column 1, lines 5-13. The addition of
fibrous cellulosic materials to the potato-based dough improves it by making the dough
more “workable.” Id., column 3, lines 13-17. When the dough is utilized to prepare a
fried food, a product with “increased crispness and texture” is produced. Id. The
preferred fibers are disclosed in the patent to be citrus peel and sugar beet pulp, but
significantly Feeney does not restrict its teaching to these materials. Id., column 2,
lines 40-44. Other sources are described as suitable when they contain a water-soluble
fibrous component and a water-insoluble fibrous component. Id., column 2, lines 53-60;
column 3, lines 64-68; column 10, lines 8-17. In this context, while there is no specific
teaching to use potato fiber, we do see clear directions to go outside the four corners of
Feeney’s patent to pick other fibers having the requisite properties to improve fried food
potato-based products.
Feeney provides explicit guidance on how to select cellulosic materials that are
useful to improve the potato dough. The patent repeatedly emphasizes that a
significant factor in choosing the cellulosic material is that it have “high water
absorbency.”
It is therefore an object of this invention to create improved fried food products
made from a potato-based dough, wherein said dough and the food products
made therefrom are improved by the addition of a fibrous cellulosic material, said
material having a high water absorbency. The source of the fibrous cellulosic
material for use in this invention is preferably high in pectin (i.e., it contains at
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