Appeal No. 95-1645
Application No. 07/866,780
waste, was known prior to the date of the claimed invention,
however the specific use of microwave energy in the specific
manner claimed is the inventive contribution of the disclosure
and claims at issue herein.
DISCUSSION
Claims 1-9 and 11-21 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103
over Hardwick. Hardwick teaches vitrification of particular
wastes using microwave energy. Hardwick is silent with
respect to incineration or incineration temperatures. All of
the claims specifically recite applying both a first
incineration temperature and a second higher temperature to
the waste being treated. However, the examiner concludes that
the overall process claimed and the end result are the same as
that disclosed by Hardwick. With respect to the first and
second temperatures the examiner states on page 4 of the
Examiner's Answer that:
the microwave heating taught by the Hardwick
reference would inherently include a low and
a high temperature.
The examiner has not pointed to any recitation of low and high
temperatures in Hardwick. We presume that the examiner is
referring to the fact that to reach a high temperature one
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