Appeal No. 94-3251
Application 08/071,690
Appealed claim 1 is drawn to a process for preparing a
secondary amine comprising a first reaction of an aldehyde and
a primary amine to produce a Schiff base and water, and after
removing the water, a second reaction of the Schiff base with
methylamine and hydrogen in the presence of a hydrogenation
catalyst. As disclosed in appellants' specification, the claimed
process for producing secondary amines results in a reduction of
undesired by-products and an increased yield compared to prior
art processes for producing secondary amines.
The Terada reference relied on in the examiner's rejection
is directed to a two-step process for preparing primary amines.
As pointed out by appellants on page 2 of their brief, there is
no teaching in the Terada reference of a reaction to form a
secondary amine as in the appellants' process. Terada's process2
involves a first reaction of an aldehyde and a primary amine to
form a Schiff base, and a second reaction in which the Schiff
base is hydrogenated in the presence of ammonia and a catalyst.
The examiner urges on page 4 of his answer that the Terada
process is analogous to the process of claim 1 and differs in
Terada does disclose on page 4 that with the primary amines formed as2
raw materials, "secondary or tertiary amines could be manufactured arbitrarily
by reacting with organic carbonyl compounds and by hydrogenation." This is
the process disclosed by appellants as the prior art process for preparing
secondary amines.
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