Appeal No. 1996-2734 Page 7
Application No. 08/133,680
agent. Additionally, like the so called “reducing agent” of1
appellants, that weak acid component of the composition of
Schwartzkopf is employed to prevent undesirable metal
corrosion when the composition is used to strip certain
photoresist films from a metal-containing substrate (column 1,
lines 8-20 and column 2, lines 41-61). Our review of the
teachings of Schwartzkopf regarding the weak acids
that may be employed in the composition reveals that various
phenols including di- and tri-hydroxy benzenes are among the
acids that may be employed (column 3, lines 1-22). Indeed, we
find that the specifically listed resorcinol of Schwartzkopf
is a positional isomer of hydroquinone, which is specifically
recited in representative appealed claim 15 as a reducing
agent. On this record, we find that at least some of the weak
acids described by Schwartzkopf are so structurally similar to
the compounds included as reducing agents in the appealed
claims that, prima facie, the description of the acid
1Appealed claim 18, which ultimately depends from representative claim
15 makes it clear that appellants’ “amount effective...” (claim 15) is
inclusive of the about 0.1% to about 10% by weight range of claim 18.
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