Appeal No. 1997-1816
Application No. 08/178,269
close in chemical structure. Indeed, the compounds of Chenard
'343 do not possess the benzo-fused moieties of Frost.
Significantly, while we find appellant's argument to be a
valid one, we have searched in vain for any response or
refutation of this argument in the Examiner's Answer or
Supplemental Answer. Consequently, inasmuch as the examiner
has not established that the difference in chemical structure
between the compounds of Frost and Chenard '343 pointed out by
appellant would not militate against modifying the 4-position
of Frost in the manner proposed by the examiner, we are
constrained to find that the examiner has not established a
prima facie case of obviousness over the combined teachings of
Frost and Chenard '343.
We now turn to the examiner's rejections based upon the
combined teachings of Frost and Chenard '723. We cannot
sustain these rejections because Chenard '723 is not an
effective prior art reference against the present application,
which has an effective filing date of July 17, 1991. The
effective § 102(e) date of Chenard '723 is November 6, 1992.
While the examiner suggests that she is actually relying upon
PCT Publication WO 91/17156, the effective prior art date of
-5-
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