Appeal 2006-2523
Application 10/206,496
‘including’”); cf. Ex parte Davis, 80 USPQ 448, 449 (Bd. App. 1948) (“the
word ‘comprising’ alone being synonymous with ‘including’”).
Independent claim 16 also specifies essentially the same steps as claim
1. The methods encompassed by this claim involves the polymerization of
silicon oxo-hydroxide as the metallic precursor on finely divided metal
substrate particles as stated in the preamble, but have an initial reaction
solution comprising 180 ml of tetraethyl orthosilicate, which is a silicon
alkoxide,2 used as the metallic precursor. No silicon oxo-hydroxide
is otherwise specified. Indeed, Appellants distinguish between “metal oxo-
hydroxides” and “[o]ther precursors [which] include metal salts and
alkoxides” (Specification [0003]; cf. [0019]). Thus, the oxo-
hydroxide would result from in situ partial hydrolysis of the alkoxide. The
initial reaction solution also comprises 200 ml tetraethyl phosphate in
ethanol, to which is added any amount of “n-propanol . . . to raise the boiling
point of the solution to about 86°C,” wherein the “total alcohol content . . .
comprises between about 40% to about 90% of the reaction solution by
volume.”
Independent claim 19 specifies essentially the same steps as claim 16,
except any amount of tetraethyl orthosilicate, tetraethyl phosphate, and
2 See, e.g., ethyl silicate, The Condensed Chemical Dictionary 443. This
compound also been named tetraethoxysilane. See, e.g., Barry Arkles,
“Silicon Compounds (Esters),” Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical
Technology, 22, 69-70 and 74 (4th ed., New York, John Wiley & Sons,
1997).
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