Appeal 2007-1848
Application 10/131,178
sheet having a thermally expandable layer containing therein thermo-
expandable microspheres. Representative independent claim 5, as presented
in the Brief, appears below:
5. A method for thermally releasing an adherend, which comprises
the steps of:
cutting an adherend adhered to a thermally releasable pressure-
sensitive adhesive sheet, into a plurality of cut pieces, the pressure
sensitive adhesive sheet comprising a base material and a
thermally expandable layer containing thermo-expandable
microspheres, wherein the cutting is conducted without cutting the
base material; and
selectively releasing the cut pieces by partly heating the
plurality of cut pieces with a heating unit for partly heating the
pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet.
The Examiner relies on the following references in rejecting the
appealed subject matter:
Lu US 5,827,394 Oct. 27, 1998
Kiuchi EP 1 033 393 A2 Jun. 9, 2000
Tsujimoto US 6,176,966 B1 Jan. 23, 2001
Claims 2, 3 and 5 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
unpatentable over the admitted prior art (APA) in view of Tsujimoto and Lu;
and claim 6 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable
over the admitted prior art (APA) in view of Tsujimoto and Lu further in
view of Kiuchi.
Appellants do not set forth separate substantive arguments against the
separately rejected claim 6. Appellants rely solely upon the reasons
presented in the discussion of claim 5 (See Brief 14). Accordingly, we will
limit our consideration to the Examiner’s rejection of claims 2, 3 and 5 over
2
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