Appeal No. 1997-1746
Application No. 08/469,801
The subject matter on appeal relates to a method for
reacting a feed gas to produce a product and separating the
product from unreacted feed gas. This appealed subject matter
is adequately represented by independent claim 24, a copy of
which taken from the appellants’ brief is appended to this
decision.
The following references are relied upon by the examiner
as evidence of obviousness:
Gesser et al. (Gesser), “The Direct Conversion of Methane to
Methanol by Controlled Oxidation,” Chemical Reviews, Vol. 85,
No. 4, pp. 236-244 (1985).
Tonkovich, “The Simulated Countercurrent Chromatographic
Reactor and Separator, A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of
the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota,” pp. 1-210
(1992).
All of the appealed claims are rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103 as being unpatentable over the Tonkovich thesis in view
of Gesser.
All of the appealed claims also are rejected under the
judicially created doctrine of obviousness-type double
patenting as being unpatentable over the claims of related
copending application Serial No. 08/469,685 in view of Gesser.
OPINION
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