Appeal No. 94-3121
Application 07/853,868
The examiner contends that Fujiwara et al. supplies epoxy resin containing adhesive
compositions which contain a second resin and a curing agent, and that Bentov et al. teaches that
the curing agent can be encapsulated. The adhesive compositions of Fujiwara et al. comprise a
phenoxy resin as the principal component which requires a cross-linking agent, a low molecular
epoxy resin and a cross-linking agent for the phenoxy and epoxy resins, which cross linking agents
can be the same (e.g., col. 2, line 37, to col. 4, line 57, and especially col. 2, lines 53-56, col. 3,
lines 18-21 and 45-53). These adhesive compositions are used by Fujiwara et al. to “laminate a
metal foil on an epoxy resin impregnated fiber board” to form a printed circuit board and further
“may be used as a structural adhesives” where “excellent bond strength at high temperatures is
required” (col. 2, lines 16-25). In the prior use, a bonding sheet is prepared wherein a semicured
sheet or “film form” of the adhesive is inserted “between a metal foil and a prepreg and heat and
pressurize the overall structure to provide a laminated printed circuit board” in which the adhesive
“if heated, will become a liquid, then a gel and finally fully polymerized” (col. 2, lines 25-34).
Fujiwara et al. teach that the “usual conditions for laminating” is a “pressure of 40 to 60 kg./cm2
and at a temperature of 160 to 180° C for one hour” (col. 4, lines 72-75). Bentov et al., in
disclosing an encapsulation method, teaches the use thereof in “packaging liquid curing agents for
synthetic resins to prevent reaction between the curing agent and resin carrier or the like through
which they are dispersed, until such time as it is desired to initiate the curing or hardening
reaction” (col. 1. lines 15-20).
It is well settled that the determination of whether one or ordinary skill in this art would
have combined the teachings of applied prior art to obtain the claimed invention must be based on
what the references would have reasonably suggested to that person or on knowledge within the
art area. See, e.g., Fine, supra. Based on our consideration of the scope of the teachings of
Hatada, Schmidt et al., Fujiwara et al. and Bentov et al. as combined by the examiner, we find no
reasonable direction therein, either separately or combined, which would have motivated one of
ordinary skill in this art to modify the processes of Hatada and Schmidt et al. by replacing the
epoxy or other adhesive resins of Hatada or the epoxy resin of Schmidt et al., which are used
without a curing agent, with the phenoxy resin based “structural” adhesive composition disclosed
in Fujiwara et al. which further contains a low molecular epoxy resin and a curing agent, after the
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Last modified: November 3, 2007