Appeal no. 97-1293
Application no. 08/281,812
temperature outside of that range. Prior art references must be considered in their
entireties, i.e., as a whole, including portions that would lead away from the claimed
invention. See W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc. v. Garlock, 721 F.2d 1540, 1550, 220 USPQ
303, 311 (Fed. Cir. 1983), cert. den., 469 U.S. 851 (1984). It would not have been obvious
to exceed the parameters taught for a process in the prior art. See In re Sebek, 465 F.2d
904, 906, 175 USPQ 93, 95 (CCPA 1972).
The examiner alleges in the paragraph bridging pp. 9 and 10 of his Answer
(parenthetical added):
With respect to the specific temperatures recited in the examples (of Lukacs), the
examiner submits that these sintering temperatures do not teach away from the
combinations of references in that the examples are directed to the production of
silicon nitride which has a low sintering temperature than titanium diboride. Silicon
nitride sublimes at 1899EC and thus would not be sintered above this temperature.
Titanium diboride, on the other hand, melts at 2593EC and thus would require a
higher sintering temperature than silicon nitride. Thus there is nothing unexpected
in the selection of this higher temperature.
The examiner’s allegation is untenable. The examiner fails to provide any evidence to
show a correlation between the temperatures for sintering and subliming silicon nitride and
the temperatures for sintering and melting titanium diboride. To the contrary, Example 1
for Yajima shows a sintering temperature of 1700E for silicon carbide, which Table 1(a)
shows as having a melting point of 2400EC, and Example 4 in Yajima employs a sintering
temperature of 1600EC for tetraboron carbide, which the same table shows as having a
melting point of 2450EC. The sintering temperatures of
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