Appeal No. 1997-0569
Application No. 08/150,559
examiner, it may have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in
the art to size the natural colored rock roofing granules of
Wright to be in the apparently standard size range claimed by
appellants, we see nothing in Wright or Lewis which teaches or
suggests appellants’ particular method as set forth in claim 1
on appeal for making colored roofing granules.
Wright discloses or suggests using properly graded
natural colored rock granules or such granules that are
further coated with a protective layer of tinted varnish as
roofing granules. Lewis discloses producing iron oxide
pigments by roasting relatively pure iron ores to drive off
volatile matter, thus converting the natural ore to a natural
iron oxide pigment. As is urged by appellants, the collective
teachings of the applied references may have provided
motivation or suggestion for one of ordinary skill in the art
to use a pigment as produced in Lewis (col. 1) as the coloring
agent for the varnish used in Wright, but in no way teach or
suggest appellants’ claimed method of making colored roofing
granules. As for the process that is the subject of the Lewis
patent, that process for preparing an iron oxide pigment is
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