Appeal No. 1996-3826
Application 08/222,477
881 (CCPA 1981)(“The test for obviousness is . . . what the combined teachings of the references
would have suggested to those of ordinary skill in the art.”); In re Castner, 518 F.2d 1234, 1238-39,
186 USPQ 213, 217 (CCPA 1975) (“We agree with appellant that not every ingredient is shown in a
single prior art reference. However, when the ingredients are associated in an obvious manner set forth
in the claims, they do not co-act with each other in any new or unexpected way and define nothing
patentable over the prior art. [Citation omitted.]”).
With respect to the claimed methods encompassed by claims 13 and 36, while the same require
at least that the fuel and emulsifier are mixed separately from the other ingredients which are added,
separately or combined, in admixture to form the aqueous fuel, neither claim otherwise specifies any
parameters by which the ingredients are mixed. Kawaai teaches that the oil-in-water type emulsified
fuels are prepared with an emulsifier which can be selected from a number of different mechanical and
ultrasonic devices (page 5). In the Kawaai Examples, a “mixer (3,600 rotation/minute)” is used (page
5) and in Kawaai Example 2, the surfactant was apparently mixed with a solution containing a mixture of
water and alcohol, and fuel, which combined mixture was then added to the mixer (page 8). Dubin
teaches that “[e]mulsion stability is largely related to droplet size” with small droplets being preferred;
can be “enhanced by the use of surfactants and the like, which act as emulsifiers or emulsion stabilizers;”
and can be maintained by the use of an emulsion system, which contains a nonionic surfactant, in which
some of the light fuel oil can be included, that “can in some cases increase emulsion stability of the
emulsion itself” (col. 4, line 45, to col. 5, line 67). Dubin further teaches that
[t]he emulsion . . . can be formed using a suitable mechanical emulsifying apparatus which
would be familiar to the skilled artisan. . . . The emulsion is formed by feeding both the water
and the fuel oil in the desired proportions to the emulsifying apparatus, and the emulsification
system can either be admixed or dispersed into one or both of the components before
emulsification or can be added to the emulsion after it is formed. [Col. 7, lines 4-14.]
Based on this evidence, the examiner finds that it would have been prima facie obvious to one
of ordinary skill in this art to prepare the stable oil-in-water type emulsified fuels of Kawaai by using the
methods of Dubin because one of ordinary skill in this art could have determined the “proper sequence
of adding four ingredients to obtain the most satisfactory mixture” (see Office action of June 1, 1995
(Paper No. 11, pages 4-5); answer, pages 8 to 9). We agree. Each of Kawaai and Dubin teach the
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