Appeal No. 1996-1403 Page 4
Application No. 08/052,574
atoms of oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorous.
Such compounds include organic acids, organic acid
esters, alcohols, ethers, aldehydes, ketones, amines,
amine oxides, amides, thiols and various phosphorous
acid esters and amides, and like.
It is the examiner’s position that Arzoumanidis differs from
the claimed catalyst composition only in the scope of the first
electron donor. See Answer, page 3. In contrast, appellants
submit that the disclosure of broad categories of compounds is
insufficient as a matter of law to establish a prima facie case
of obviousness of specified structures. We agree with
appellants.
We are not concerned with the name used to designate the
relationship between related compounds. It is the closeness of
that relationship which is indicative of the obviousness or
unobviousness of the new compound. See In re Payne, 606 F.2d
303, 315, 203 USPQ 245, 254 - 255 (CCPA 1979). In the
reference relied upon by the examiner, we find that the only
compounds specifically recited by Arzoumanidis are esters of
aromatic acids. See column 5, lines 58 - column 6, line 8, and
the Examples. We find that esters are excluded from the
formula of the claimed subject matter. See the formula
together with the definitions of functional groups encompassed
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