Appeal No. 96-3499 Page 4
Application 08/271,569
OPINION
In reaching our decision, we have given careful consi-
deration to the appellants' specification and claims, to the
applied prior art reference, and to the respective positions
articulated by the appellants and the examiner.
For the reasons which follow, we cannot sustain the
rejection presented by the examiner in this appeal.
On the record of this appeal, the examiner has not
carried the burden of establishing a prima facie case of
obviousness with respect to the subject matter defined by the
appealed claims.
Wiewiorowski (column 2, lines 10-48) discloses a process
for the removal of molybdenum and vanadium from spent
catalyst. The process includes the leaching of an aqueous
slurry of the spent catalyst in the presence of oxygen with
sodium hydroxide and/or sodium aluminate present in a least
stoichiometric amounts to convert molybdenum to sodium
molybdate, vanadium to sodium vanadate, and, any tungsten that
may be present in the spent catalyst to sodium tungstate. The
oxygen pressure leaching is taught to occur at a temperature
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