Appeal 2007-0906
Application 10/445,238
Based on these factual determinations, the Examiner has taken the
position that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at
the time of the invention to employ a conventional multi-axial oriented LCP,
such as disclosed or suggested by Harvey or the VectranTM as acknowledged
by Appellants to be commercially available, as the LCP material used in the
process of Clarke for yielding a composite laminate having improved
strength characteristic (Answer 4 and 7-11). Moreover, in so doing, the
Examiner has essentially determined that one of ordinary skill in the art
would have been led to employ a workable curing temperature for the curing
step of Clarke, via the use of routine skill and/or experimentation, that would
have corresponded with the curing temperature required by claim 1 or by
claim 4 (Answer 7-11).3 We agree.
In light of our determinations set forth above and for reasons stated in
the Answer, we are not persuaded by Appellants’ arguments as to a lack of a
teaching, suggestion or motivation for one of ordinary skill in the art to
arrive at the claimed process from the applied prior art. Concerning
Appellants’ focus on an alleged lack of the claimed curing temperature being
claimed invention, and that consideration of the prior art cited by the
Examiner may include consideration of the admitted prior art found in the
Specification. In re Nomiya, 509 F.2d 566, 570-571, 184 USPQ 607, 611-
612 (CCPA 1975); In re Davis, 305 F.2d 501, 503, 134 USPQ 256, 258
(CCPA 1962).
3 We do not agree that Clarke discloses a curing temperature at column 5,
lines 5-10 and/or at column 5, lines 50-53 thereof to the extent the Examiner
so argued (Answer 3 and 7). However, we deem this seemingly asserted
matter to represent harmless error in that the Examiner correctly determined
that selecting a workable curing temperature would have been within the
skill level of an ordinarily skilled artisan upon routine experimentation.
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