Appeal No. 2006-2247
Reexamination Nos. 90/006,554 and 90/006,894
1 Furthermore, Witman teaches that the tertiary amine includes substituted pyridines.
2 Polyvinylpyridine, which was known to be oxidizable to an N-oxide as shown in
3 Dunn and as admitted by Dr. Boeckh, is a substituted pyridine. In re Mayne, 104
4 F.3d 1339, 1343, 41 USPQ2d 1451, 1454 (Fed. Cir. 1997)(“Structural relationships
5 often provide the requisite motivation to modify known compounds to obtain
6 new compounds.”).
7 As to the “acid” component recited in appealed claim 1, Witman discloses
8 that the reaction medium containing an aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide
9 may contain an additional solvent (preferably miscible with water) and that, when
10 the amine is a heterocylic amine, the most useful solvents are lower aliphatic
11 carboxylic acids, preferably glacial acetic acid. (Column 5, line 71 to column 6,
12 line 5.) Accordingly, a person having ordinary skill in the art would have found it
13 prima facie obvious to include a suitable amount of glacial acetic acid in the
14 reaction medium of Witman’s Example V as expressly described in the reference.
15 With respect to separately argued claim 5, Witman teaches that “[a]s a
16 general rule, an amount of the catalyst between about 1.0% and about 20%, based
17 on the number of moles of amine reactant charged, will effectively catalyze the
18 reaction between the amine and the hydrogen peroxide” and in “many cases, even
19 less of the catalyst - e.g., as little as 0.1% of the amine on a molar basis - will be
20 sufficient...” (Column 4, lines 69-74.) The subject matter of appealed claim 5,
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