Appeal No. 95-2204
Application 08/018,356
a promoter or catalyst solution which contains one or more
certain types of organic amines. One subclass of these organic
amines comprises diamines. Of the diamines envisioned by
patentee, the one structurally closest to the here claimed
diamine contains an ethane substituent rather than the
appellants’ 1,3-butane substituent as the diamine bridging group
(e.g., see lines 46-60 in column 3).
Neither Reynolds nor Yonezawa provides any suggestion for
replacing the ethane substituent of von Bramer’s diamine primers
with a 1,3-butane substituent based upon a reasonable expectation
of successfully achieving the desired primer function. This is
because Reynolds discloses diamines of the type under
consideration but not in the context of performing a primer
function (e.g., patentee teaches his diamines are useful as
intermediates or insecticides). On the other hand, Yonezawa
discloses a primer function relating to certain amines generally
but not to any kind of diamines specifically.
The examiner seems to believe that the diamines of von
Bramer and the diamines claimed by the appellants possess a
homologous relationship of such a nature that the former would
have suggested the latter. It is well settled that a prima facie
case of obviousness may be based upon a homologous relationship,
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