Appeal 2006-2523
Application 10/206,496
“paragraph 22 that alcohols having eight carbon atoms or more when added
to the reaction solution produce precipitates,” thus establishing the criticality
of the claimed range (Br. 27:13-23).
In response, the Examiner maintains Adachi is a secondary reference
which shows the hydrolysis rate of the metal precursor in the alcohol solvent
controls whether a gel is formed in solution before coating the substrate
particles (Answer 11). The Examiner contends one of ordinary skill in the
art would have added alcohols of different carbon content for this purpose
which is sufficient to establish obviousness even though Appellants add the
alcohols for a different purpose (id. 11-12). The Examiner finds it was
known to slowly add water to catalyze the polymerization as described in the
Background of the Invention which would have suggested adding the water
at a constant rate as claimed (id. 12). With respect to Appellants’ contention
the disclosure of the formation of a precipitate in solution with an alcohol
having eight carbon atoms establishes the criticality of adding an alcohol
having a carbon content in the range of three to seven, the Examiner
contends the eight carbon atom alcohol, n-octanol, was added to a solution
which contained a silicon precursor (id. 13). The Examiner argues Adachi
discloses that titanium alkoxides are more reactive than silicon alkoxides,
requiring less reactive higher alcohols, such that the higher alcohols would
be critical for a silicon precursors but not for titanium precursors, which
does not establish criticality for a claimed method using “any metallic
precursors (Claim 1) including titanium precursors (Claim 4)” (id., original
emphasis deleted).
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