Appeal 2006-2352
Application 10/065,436
commonly rejected claims either alone or in any suggested combination
thereof.
ISSUE AND SUMMARY RESOLUTION
Have Appellants identified reversible error in the Examiner’s § 103(a)
rejection in their Brief? More specifically, has the Examiner erred in failing
to establish how the collective teachings of the applied prior art references
would have suggested all the limitations of each rejected claim to one of
ordinary skill in the art, including the production of a filament or fiber
possessing a functional absorptive capacity as claimed?
We answer these questions in the affirmative. Consequently, we
reverse the Examiner’s obviousness rejection of claims 16-38.
FINDINGS OF FACT/ANALYSIS
Tamiya (JP H3-287848) discloses composite sheath-core fibers that
are used in making bulky non-woven fabrics. Tamiya’s fiber core is formed
with hollow parts and the core is made from a relatively high melting point
polymer, such as PET. As for forming the fiber sheath, Tamiya teaches
employing a relatively low melting point polymer, such as polyethylene.
Tamiya presents a melt extrusion method for manufacturing the sheath-core
fiber. See, e.g., Tamiya at 322.
The Examiner relies on Jennegren for disclosing fabrics that employ
hollow staple fibers in one embodiment and continuous spunbonded
filaments in another embodiment (Answer 10-11).
The Examiner has found that Tamiya discloses that the composite
fibers thereof can be used in the formation of liquid absorbing products, such
as diapers (Answer 7 and Tamiya 321). In particular, the Examiner has
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