Appeal No. 1997-2308
Application 08/504,266
the biocides recited in claim 15 were commercially available
biocides at the time of appellants’ invention (answer, page
4). The examiner concludes that it would have been prima
facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use as
Vieira’s biocide one of the commercially available biocides
(see id.), and we agree with this conclusion.
Appellants do not challenge the prima facie case of
obviousness. Appellants argue that their claimed invention is
patentable because the data in their specification indicate
that the claimed invention produces unexpected results (brief,
page 7).
In the specification (pages 24-25) appellants compare
coatings containing biocides recited in claim 15 with coatings
containing anionic sodium benzoate as a biocide and coatings
containing no biocide. The data show that the shelf lives of
transparencies having coatings containing no biocide were 4 to
6 months whereas the shelf lives of transparencies having
coatings containing 1 wt% anionic sodium benzoate were 10
months and the shelf lives of transparencies having a coating
containing 25 ppm by weight of biocides recited in appellants’
5
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