Appeal No. 95-3460 Application No. 08/042,303 Absent from Sirinyan is any teaching of a sulfonic acid anionic surfactant as recited in claim 1. Thus, Sirinyan cannot anticipate claims 1, 2, 4 to 6, 8, 14, 16 and 17, since Sirinyan does not meet every element of the claimed invention. Hybritech Inc. v. Monoclonal Antibodies, Inc., 802 F.2d 1367, 1379, 231 USPQ 81, 90 (Fed. Cir. 1986), cert. denied, 480 U.S. 947 (1987). Moreover, as argued by appellants, Sirinyan requires a chemical reaction between the activator compound and the sulfonic acid surfactant, whereas appellants' process does not. With respect to claim 3, we do not agree with the examiner that one skilled in the art would have found it obvious to use n-alkylarylsulfonic acid, as recited in claim 3, in lieu of the organometallic compounds disclosed in Sirinyan. The examiner has the burden to show the equivalence of the organometallic compound containing sulfonic acid groups with 2 n-alkylarylsulfonic acid in the electroless metallization process 2Sirinyan, column 2, lines 10 to 14 and 30 to 32, teaches the use of an organometallic compound of the group 8 of the Period Systems of Elements with the organo portion selected from sulphonic acid groups, sulphonic acid halide groups and sulphonic acid ester groups. -3-Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007