Appeal No. 95-2444
Application 07/973,655
lignocellulosic pulp with soybean peroxidase in the presence of a
peroxide and removing lignin from the pulp. Appellants disclose
that suitable pulps for the practice of the invention include
kraft pulp (Specification, p.4). Claim 1 is illustrative of the
subject matter on appeal and reads as follows:
1. A process which comprises treating a lignocellulosic
pulp with soybean peroxidase in the presence of a peroxide, and
removing lignin from said pulp.
The references relied upon by the examiner are:
Johnson et al. (Johnson) 5,147,793 Sep. 15, 1992
Vaherl et al. (Vaherl) 0 395 792 Nov. 7, 1990
(European Patent Application)
Canadian Patent Application 2,019,411 Dec. 22, 1990
The following rejections are at issue in this appeal:
(1) Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a) or (e) as
anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
obvious over the '793 patent.2
(2) Claims 1-4, 6 and 9-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103 as being unpatentable over Canadian patent application no.
2 The examiner refers to U.S. Patent No. 5,147,793, as "Cyrus, Jr. et
al." throughout the final Office action and the answer, and appellants refer to
this same reference as "Johnson '793." We will refer to U.S. Patent No.
5,147,793 as “the '793 patent”.
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007