Appeal No. 2001-0065
Application 09/048,289
In the Examiner’s Answer, page 4, lines 12-14, the Examiner states that:
AHS ET AL teaches (col. 2, lines 38-40) adding alkali to the reject. It would have
been especially obvious to impregnate (soak) the reject material in alkali prior to
adding it back to the pulp line as such is taught by PROUGH ‘498 (column 4,
lines 26-35).
The Appellants state in response that:
Prough ‘498 teaches that the pulp has to be either refined and delignified or
merely refined before introducing it back to the main fiber line. The invention, on
the other hand, provides that the rejects can be brought back to the main line
upstream of the oxygen delignification reactor without any treatment. This is
significant, and means that in fact Prough ‘498 actually teaches contrary to the
invention and therefore cannot provide a prima facie case of obviousness with
the other references.
This argument misses the point of the combination of references. Prough is not
relied upon to establish the location of the rejects return or whether refining is necessary
in the branch line. Prough is relied upon to show the obviousness of using a soak tank
40 and its accompanying function allowing a caustic soak before returning the pulp
(Prough, column 3, lines 53-62).
The Appellants note that “the mere fact that alkaline impregnation per se is
known does not make it obvious in the context of the invention, or in the specific method
steps recited in claim 2” (Appeal Brief, Page 13, lines 10-12).
A close examination of Prough (with particular attention to Figure 3a and the
description at column 3, line 47 to column 4, line 35) Ahs, and Mannbro indicates that
Prough, Ahs, and Mannbro are all in the same field of endeavor, all relate to known
methods of improving yield, and all illustrate close variations on the pulping process.
Figure 3a is particularly illustrative; it, in combination with Ahs and Mannbro clearly
rendered the invention as claimed in claim 2 obvious to one of skill in the art at the time
the invention was made by teaching and suggesting alkaline impregnation to ensure a
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