Appeal No. 95-2734
Application 07/952,060
Claims 1 through 20 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being obvious over
Wyatt.
The claims on appeal have been grouped and argued separately as indicated on
page 2 of the Brief and will be so considered in the opinion below.
Opinion
For the reasons which follow, we will sustain only the § 103 rejection of claims 1
through 5, 12 through 14, and 17 as being obvious over Wyatt.
Wyatt discloses a three-way catalyst for treating exhaust gases produced by an
internal combustion engine which includes a monolithic substrate having thereon a
refractory oxide layer (also called the washcoat), tungsten oxide, and a platinum group
metal (e.g., see lines 39 through 61 in column 1). Further, patentee teaches that the
refractory oxide layer may be made from a variety of compounds including oxides of
barium and the lanthanides (e.g., see lines 54 through 56 in column 1). In this latter
regard, the paragraph bridging pages 7 and 8 of the appellants’ specification reveals
that barium oxide and lanthanum oxide are basic metal oxides having pH values
pzc
greater than that of tungsten oxide as required by the appealed claims.
Thus, the Wyatt catalyst may include each of the ingredients defined by the
appealed claims. Additionally, this catalyst may be prepared by depositing and firing
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