Appeal No. 95-0678
Application 07/938,960
be used in the pretreatment coating (col. 3, lines 27-33), it
would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in
the art to use any vegetable gum known in the art to be suitable
for use in coating seeds, such as guar gum as taught by
Redenbaugh (col. 4, lines 66-67).
Appellant further argues that Redenbaugh lists guar gum
along with about 60 other coatings and that In re Baird, 16 F.3d
380, 382, 29 USPQ2d 1550, 1552 (Fed. Cir. 1994), is authority
for the proposition that selecting one out of a multitude of
disclosed materials would not have been obvious to one of
ordinary skill in the art (brief, page 3).
In Baird, the Knapp reference disclosed a genus encompassing
what the court estimated to be more than 100 million diphenols.
Id. Bisphenol A as recited in Baird’s claim was encompassed by
the genus but was not specifically disclosed in that reference.
Id. The court stated that “[w]hile the Knapp formula
unquestionably encompasses bisphenol A when specific variables
are chosen, there is nothing in the disclosure of Knapp
suggesting that one should select such variables. Indeed, Knapp
appears to teach away from the selection of bisphenol A by
focusing on more complex diphenols . . . .” Id.
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