Appeal No. 95-4762
Application No. 08/086,885
clay is hydrogen ion exchanged to provide a catalyst for
carrying out proton catalyzed organic reactions. British
Petroleum states on page 4 that, "[h]ydrogen ion-exchanged
layered clays may be used as catalysts in all organic
reactions catalysed by protons." Notwithstanding that
statement anhydration reactions are not disclosed, although
numerous organic reactions are thereafter discussed in pages 4
through 11 and exemplified on pages 11 through 18 of the
British Petroleum reference. Accordingly, we find no
suggestion in British Petroleum for the use of the acid
exchanged clay catalyst in forming the anhydrides of the
claimed invention. We conclude that British Petroleum in and
of itself is insufficient to teach appellants' claimed
process.
Neither do we find any suggestion for combining the
teachings of McCabe and British Petroleum. McCabe teaches
clay catalysed cyclic anhydride formation. However, in
contrast to the claimed subject matter, the clay catalyst used
by McCabe is not treated with one or more compounds capable of
providing an H ion, i.e., it is not hydrogen ion exchanged.+
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