Appeal No. 1997-3361
Application No. 08/554,939
thereon at least one light-sensitive silver halide emulsion
layer, comprising the steps of developing in a developing bath,
bleaching in a bath having a bleaching ability, and fixing in a
bath having a fixing ability. Also, as discussed above, Kojima
‘370 teaches that the fixing bath can contain compound B-8, which
is the appellants’ elected species I-5, as well as a known fixing
agent such as a thiosulfate in relative amounts encompassed by
appealed claim 1. Moreover, Kojima ‘370 describes working
examples (e.g., Table 1, Nos. 11 and 12) showing a method
comprising developing an image-wise exposed silver halide color
emulsion photographic material and bleach-fixing the photographic
material in a solution containing 0.5 mol of compound B-3, which
falls within the scope of appealed claim 1. (Example 1.) Thus,
we determine that it would have been prima facie obvious for one
of ordinary skill in the art to carry out the process as
described in Kojima ‘370 using a fixing bath (or bleach-fixing
bath) containing, e.g. 0.5 mol/liter of compound B-8 (or B-3) and
2 mol/liter of a thiosulfate, as expressly described in the
reference, so as to arrive at a method encompassed by appealed
claim 1, with the reasonable expectation of achieving all of the
objects as described in Kojima ‘370. (Column 2, lines 41-65.)
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