Appeal 2007-2138
Application 10/645,885
Here, the higher basis weight areas of Appellants' non-woven textile is
disclosed as being formed of fibers broadly and, by example, of
polypropylene fibers specifically (Spec. 7, ¶ 00017). This exemplificative
reference to polypropylene fiber, which is a synthetic fiber, would have
conveyed to an artisan that other synthetic fibers were part of the invention
possessed by Appellants as of the application filing date. For this reason
alone, we cannot sustain the § 112, first paragraph, rejection of claims 1, 3,
4, and 17-18 as failing to comply with the written description requirement.
THE § 103 REJECTIONS
The Examiner finds that Example 4 of Suskind discloses a textile
having a central area of low basis weight surrounded on both sides by areas
of higher basis weight as required by the appealed claims (Ans. 4). The
Examiner acknowledges that the higher basis weight fibers of Suskind's
Example 4 fabric include wood pulp fibers and thus do not consist of
synthetic fibers as required by the independent claims (id.). According to
the Examiner, "[i]t would have been obvious … to a person having ordinary
skill in the art to modify the areas of higher basis weight of Suskind which
form the outside surfaces of the material and substitute the wood pulp
material with synthetic fibers with the motivation of maximize [sic] the
desirable hand feel associated with synthetic compared to wood pulp as
disclosed by Bouchette" (id. at 5).
The Examiner also acknowledges that Suskind contains no express
teaching of Air Permeability values within the Appellants' claimed range but
urges that such values either are "inherent to textile formed from the
4
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