Appeal No. 96-1165
Application 08/060,422
the first step of the Gorin process would be both economical and environmentally desirable by a person
skilled in the chemical arts in order to provide a ready source of carbon monoxide and thereby reduce the
amount of hydrocarbonaceous solids required for the source of the carbon monoxide reducing agent and
to prevent toxic carbon monoxide from polluting the atmosphere.
Appellant argues that Kertamus is non-analogous art. We do not agree. The test of whether a
reference is from a non-analogous art is first, whether it is within the field of the inventor*s endeavor, and
second, if it is not, whether it is reasonably pertinent to the particular problem with which the inventor was
involved. In re Wood, 599 F.2d 1032, 1036, 202 USPQ 171, 174 (CCPA 1979). A reference is
reasonably pertinent if, even though it may be in a different field of endeavor, it is one which because of the
matter with which it deals, logically would have commended itself to an inventor*s attention in considering
his problem. In re Clay, 966 F.2d 656, 659, 23 USPQ2d 1058, 1061 (Fed. Cir. 1992).
As evidence that Kertamus is in a different field of endeavor, appellant points to the different PTO
classifications of the Kertamus patent and appellant’s application. We do not find this, in and of itself,
particularly relevant since patents and applications are classified based on claimed subject matter, and not
with respect to what is disclosed in the patent or application. Appellant argues that Kertamus is not
particularly relevant to the second part of the test as set forth, supra, since the reference is not reasonably
relevant to the “problem of producing elemental sulfur from metal sulfates while reducing the amount of
capital equipment and fuel requirements by the conventional Claus sulfur production process” and the
problem of “improving the efficiencies of the sulfate processing and sulfur production process” (brief: p.
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