Ex parte DEMOTT et al. - Page 5




          Appeal No. 1997-1001                                                        
          Application No. 08/369,202                                                  


          Although the processing aspects of the appealed product-by-                 
          process claims require the separate and sequential addition of              
          urea and melamine to the resole resin solution, the appealed                
          claims are nevertheless directed to a product, i.e., an                     
          aqueous binder solution.  Thus, the determination of the                    
          patentability of the appealed claims must be based on the                   
          product itself, not the process of making it.  See In re                    
          Thorpe, 777 F.2d 695, 697,                                                  
          227 USPQ 964, 966 (Fed. Cir. 1985)(“If the product in a                     
          product-by-process claim is the same as or obvious from a                   
          product of the prior art, the claim is unpatentable even                    
          though the prior art product was made by a different                        
          process.”)  From a structural perspective, it reasonably                    
          appears that the aqueous binder solution defined by the herein              
          product-by-process claims is the same as or only slightly                   
          different from the suggested prior art ammonia, urea, melamine              
          modified resin binder solution of Coventry.                                 
               We have not ignored appellants’ arguments which stress                 
          that appellants’ intention is to produce a “prereact binder                 
          with greater binding efficiency.”  See the reply brief at page              
          2. However, appellants’ claims are directed to an aqueous                   
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