Ex Parte Fokken et al - Page 6

                Appeal 2007-1565                                                                             
                Application 10/682,951                                                                       

                an amino alcohol, respectively.  However, Drewes’s composition 33 also                       
                contains a zinc stearate.  Appellants challenge the Examiner’s finding that it               
                would have been obvious to have prepared composition 33, but without zinc                    
                (Br. 6).                                                                                     
                      An obviousness determination requires consideration of the entirety of                 
                the disclosure for what it fairly suggests to the person of ordinary skill in the            
                art.  In re Hedges, 783 F.2d 1038, 1039, 228 USPQ 685, 687 (Fed. Cir.                        
                1986); In re Rinehart, 531 F.2d 1048, 1051, 189 USPQ 143, 146-47 (CCPA                       
                1976).                                                                                       
                      In this case, Drewes describes metal soaps as an optional additive to                  
                its stabilizer compositions (Drewes, col. 11, ll. 3-5; col. 12, ll. 60 and 62;               
                col. 13, 35-37 (FF 6, 7)).  Zinc stearate is an example of a metal soap                      
                (Drewes, col. 12, l. 62; col. 13, 35-37; col. 26, l. 6 (FF 7, 8)).  Both                     
                compositions which contain zinc stearate (col. 24, ll. 35-47, Examples 19-22                 
                (FF 9)) and which do not contain it (Drewes, col. 24, ll. 35-47; col. 24, l. 60              
                to col. 25, l. 14 (FF 10)) are disclosed by Drewes.  Neither a metal soap, not               
                zinc stearate in particular, is described by Drewes as essential to stabilize                
                PVC.  For example, for composition 33 which contains all three required                      
                components of claim 1, and in addition zinc stearate, Drewes concludes that                  
                perchlorate (the halogen-containing oxy acid salt) and the polyol (THEIC, an                 
                amino alcohol) “give particularly good stabilization” (Drewes, col. 26, (ll.                 
                22-23 (FF 12)).   Drewes also states that the “addition of polyol [THEIC, an                 
                amino alcohol] has a particularly favourable effect” (Drewes, col. 25, ll. 50-               
                55 (FF 11)).  Zinc stearate is not characterized in these examples as essential              
                or as contributing to the composition’s stabilizer properties.                               


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