Appeal No. 2006-1551
Application No. 10/015,863
All of the claims on appeal are rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103(a) as being unpatentable over Fletcher. 1
We refer to the brief and reply brief and to the answer for
a complete discussion of the opposing viewpoints expressed by the
appellant and by the examiner concerning the above noted
rejection.
OPINION
For the reasons expressed by the examiner and below, we will
sustain this rejection.
As noted by the examiner, the boiling temperature ranges for
the three naphtha fractions defined by the independent claim on
appeal differ from the three temperature ranges explicitly
disclosed by Fletcher in figure 1. More specifically, while the
respective temperature ranges claimed by the appellant and
disclosed by patentee overlap, they do not coincide as is readily
apparent from the comparison of these ranges shown on page 2 of
the reply brief. According to the examiner, “[i]t . . . would
have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the
1The appealed claims have not been separately argued in the
manner required by 37 CFR § 41.37(c)(1)(vii)(2004). Indeed, the
appellant expressly states that “[t]he claims are considered
together” (brief, page 4). As a consequence, we will focus on
claim 11, the sole independent claim on appeal, in considering
the propriety of the examiner’s rejection.
3
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