Appeal 2007-2136
Application 10/457,769
and 41 under 35 U.S.C. § 102 or § 103. Claims 29-39 and 42 fall with
claim 28.
5. OBVIOUSNESS
Claims 14-25 and 27-42 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
obvious over Winslow in view of Chien. The Examiner relies on Winslow
for teaching “all of the limitations of the instant claims except the silane
modifier” (Answer 6). The Examiner relies on Chien for describing “[u]se
of a modifier such as alkoxysilane in [a] vanadium catalyst composition to
increase stereoregularity in olefin polymerization” (id.). The Examiner
concludes that “it would have been obvious to a skilled artisan at the time
the invention was made to employ Chien’s silane modifier to Winslow’s
catalyst’s composition to provide an olefin polymer with improved
stereoregularity” (id.).
We conclude that the Examiner has set forth a prima facie case of
obviousness. Winslow is discussed above. Chien describes “a catalyst
system for the polymerization of alpha-olefins,” comprising a solid
precursor comprising the reaction product of a halogenated vanadium
compound with other components, a hydrocarbyl aluminum cocatalyst, and
an outside electron donor (Chien, col. 1, l. 51, to col. 2, l. 1). “The electron
donor can be . . . a silicon compound including silanes and alkoxysilanes”
(id. at col. 4, ll. 60-64). “Examples of useful silicon compounds are
diphenyldimethoxy silane, n-propyltrimethoxy silane, di-tert-
butyldimethoxy silane, diphenyldiisobutoxy silane, diisobutyldimethoxy
silane, and dimethyldiethoxy silane” (id. at col. 5, ll. 47-51). The amount of
outside electron donor “is adjusted to provide stereoregularity in the
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