Appeal 2006-2290
Application 10/278,190
the airborne contaminants and (2) an electrostatic charge of the same
polarity is placed on a material so that it repels or deflects the charged
airborne contaminants. Siess cols. 1-6, col. 10, l. 10, to col. 11, l. 39, and
FIGs. 5-7. A face mask can be electrostatically charged. Siess col. 5,
ll. 53-56; col. 10, ll. 16-18 and 44-46; col. 11, 23-26, 40-48, and 62-65; and
FIGs. 5-9. Siess describes the illustrative face mask depicted in FIG. 8 as
involving
a method and apparatus for applying an electrostatic charge to a
face mask for repelling charged airborne agents. The apparatus is
a charged mask generally indicated by the numeral 710.
The mask 710 is comprised of one or more electrostatically-
charged polymers [sic] fiber layers 712 to repel charged airborne
agents. The repelling material can be of a type manufactured by
3M Corporation (USA) under the trade name filterette, or as
manufactured by Hepworth.
Siess col. 11, ll. 40-48. With respect to the cited sources of “repelling
material,” we notice that FiltreteTM Air Filter Media is a 3M Corporation
product used in FiltreteTM Filters products which contain electrostatically
charged fibers, and Hepworth Minerals & Chemicals Ltd. has the product
“Technostat” which is an “electret air filter medium.”3
We find mask 710 as depicted in FIG. 8 shows only a top or front
layer, a nose piece and ties for fixing the mask on the head of the wearer.
No other mask component(s) is/are identifiable from FIG. 8. The face masks
416 in FIG. 5, “56” in FIG. 6, 616 in FIG. 7, and 812 in FIG. 9 show only a
top or front layer and ties.
3 This information is readily available on a number of websites through any
search engine.
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