Appeal No. 1997-0421 Page 5
Application No. 08/304,485
not speculation. In re Warner, 379 F.2d 1011, 1017, 154 USPQ
173, 178 (CCPA 1967), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 1057 (1968).
Timmerman only discusses the usefulness of a synthetic clay in
the context of an antistatic layer consisting of colloidal
silica, not in the context of a antistatic layer including a
specified polymer, a specified fluorine containing salt and a
hydrophilic binder (such as gelatin) as used in Chen. The
examiner has not pointed to where Chen alone or in combination
with Timmerman would have suggested the use of colloidal
silica in their anti-static layer rather than the components
otherwise taught by Chen, and in amounts such that the
addition of a synthetic clay would have been necessary to
forestall microcracking as discussed by Timmerman.
Indeed, our reading of Chen indicates that the disclosed
invention therein is premised on the use of the combination of
a specified polymer, a specified fluorine containing salt and
a hydrophilic binder (such as gelatin) as an antistatic
composition. References cannot properly be combined if the
effect would destroy the invention on which one of the
reference patents is based. Ex parte Hartmann, 186 USPQ 366,
367 (Bd. App. 1974).
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