Appeal No. 94-2901
Application No. 07/837,666
experiment, prior art references, or argument, the entire
merits of the matter are to be reweighed.").
We have reviewed the objective evidence of nonobviousness
in applicant's specification, pages 5 through 8. There, in
side-by-side testing, applicant compares prior art Medium I
with culture Media II and III representing the claimed
invention. The evidence establishes that replacing a
monosaccharide such as dextrose with glycerol provides a
significant, unexpected improvement in the art, namely,
culture media containing glycerol are significantly less
sensitive to processing heat conditions and maintain a stable
pH. As stated in In re Papesch, 315 F.2d
381, 391, 137 USPQ 43, 51 (CCPA 1963), a composition and all
of its properties are inseparable; they are one and the same
thing. On these facts, we hold that (1) the specification
evidence serves to rebut the examiner's prima facie case of
obviousness; and (2) the claimed composition, considered as a
whole, would not have been obvious from the cited prior art.
The examiner attempts to "explain away" the data in
applicant's specification, arguing that
glycerol has a structure and chemical properties
differing substantially from glucose, and would not
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