Appeal No. 94-2062
Application 07/870,841
advanced by appellants and the examiner and agree with
appellants that the aforementioned rejection is not well
founded. Accordingly, this rejection will be reversed.
Alhede discloses a method for producing guanidines by
reacting formamidinesulfonic acids with primary monoamines
(page
1, line 39 - page 2, line 20). The formamidinesulfonic acids
differ from those recited in appellants’ claim 19, but
appellants state that they do not assert that this difference
is a patentable distinction (brief, page 4). Appellants argue
that the patentable distinction lies in the difference between
the amine reactants and the products of appellants and those
of Alhede. See id.
The examiner argues (answer, page 6):
A chemical process with a predictable outcome
and otherwise obvious is not rendered unobvious
simply because either or both the starting material
and the product are novel. In re Durden, 763 F.2d
1406, 226 USPQ 359 (Fed. Cir. 1985). As such,
appellants’ use of an analogous diamine reactant in
the otherwise old amidination process is not, in and
of itself, sufficient to render the herein-claimed
process unobvious.
-3-3
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