1 (b) a porous substance 33 attached to and covering the outer
2 circumferential surface 34 of the support and having pores suitable for
3 use as a separation membrane, wherein, the support has at least 36
4 crosses per inch, an outside diameter of between 1.5 mm and 2.5 mm
5 and a wall thickness of more than 0.15 mm and less than 0.5 mm.
6 Claim 22. The membrane of claim 17 wherein the air
7 permeability of the support without the porous substance attached is
8 less than about 10 cc/sec/cm2 at 1.378 kPa.
9 Mahendran describes a hollow separation membrane made from
10 a support with an outer covering which is a porous substance. Col. 1:6-23;
11 col. 4:65 through col. 5:5.
12 According to Mahendran, a Caro patent describes the use in the art of
13 hollow separation membranes made with multiple carriers, preferably 24, to
14 braid a tubular braid. Col. 3:31-32. The prior art use of 24 carriers falls
15 within the scope of appellants’ 16 to 60 separate yarns. Based on the prior
16 art described in Mahendran, a person skilled in the art would know that the
17 use of multiple carriers, including those with 24 carriers, would be useful in
18 accomplishing the objective sought by Mahendran.
19 The yarns described by Mahendran are 210 denier (1 denier = 9000
20 yards of yarn weighing 1 gram). Col. 7:44-52. A 210 denier yarn falls
21 within scope of Appellants’ 150 to 400 (claim 1) or 200 to 400 (claim 17)
22 denier yarns.
23 The outside diameter of the Mahendran braided support ranges from
24 about 0.6 mm to 2.5 mm. Col. 8:26-27. The range described by Mahendran
25 encompasses Appellants’ outside diameter range of 1.5 mm to 2.5 mm
26 (claims 1 and 17).
5
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