Appeal No. 96-0640
Application 08/127,178
centipoises. With this relatively low viscosity it is
easier to add more filler material such as glass spheres
which, as mentioned previously, is desirable.
Even if we presume that Metzger would have enabled
persons skilled in the art to make soundproofing coatings
comprising an epoxy or polyurethane adhesive binder, at least
two parts by volume of hollow microspheres per part by volume
of binder, and approximately three parts by weight of a dense
granular weighting material per part by weight of binder, the
mere fact that the soundproofing coating might be modified to
include three parts by weight of dense granular weighting
material per part by weight of adhesive binder would not have
made the modification obvious to a person having ordinary
skill in the art unless the prior art suggested the
desirability of the modification. See In re Laskowski, 871
F.2d 115, 117, 10 USPQ2d 1397, 1398-99 (Fed. Cir. 1989).
We are hardpressed to understand the examiner’s
explanation why persons having ordinary skill in the art would
have been motivated by the combination of Metzger’s teaching
and a known inverse relationship between density and resonant
frequency to add approximately three times the weight of dense
granular weighting material to the adhesive binder of
Metzger’s hollow microsphere-filled, uncured binder. In
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