Appeal No. 2000-0057
Application 08/748,053
temperature. Sulfamic acid has a melting point of
approximately 250ºC and, therefore, is a solid at temperatures
below about 40ºC. The examiner does not address whether the1
sulfonic acid in the appellants’ claim 18 is a normally liquid
acid. If not, then it appears that the appellants’ claims 1,
39 and 40 do not encompass the composition in this example.
Because the examiner has not established that Bull
discloses or would have fairly suggested, to one of ordinary
skill in the art, a composition containing a normally liquid
acid, as that term is used by the appellants, the examiner has
not established a prima facie case of obviousness of the
compositions recited in the appellants’ claims 1, 39 and 40.2
As for the appellants’ claim 41, the examiner argues that
because Bull discloses the phosphoric acid, citric acid and
sulfamic acid recited in this claim, Bull inherently discloses
the claimed composition (office action mailed September 2,
1998, paper no. 17, pages 7-8). The appellants’ claim 41,
1See Hackh’s Chemical Dictionary 645 (Julius Grant ed., McGraw-Hill, 4 ed. 1969).th
In the rejection of dependent claims 12, 14 and 49, the examiner does not rely upon Brown-2
Skrobot for a disclosure which remedies the above-discussed deficiency in Bull.
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