Appeal No. 1997-1834 Page 7
Application No. 08/267,527
spectrally sensitized silver halide emulsions, such as silver bromide or silver iodide, contained in a silver
halide photographic material. The Examiner further indicates that the use of the polyoxyethylene
compounds to accelerate development of silver halide emulsions was also common knowledge in the
prior art. The Examiner logically concludes that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in
the art at the time the invention was made to use the polyoxyethylene compounds of Pollet in the
photographic material of Dickerson to obtain the advantages described by Pollet in the photographic
material of Dickerson (Answer, pages 6 and 8).
In traversing the Examiner’s rejection, Appellants argue that there is no reason why one skilled
in the art would utilize the compounds of Pollet in the process of Dickerson (Brief, page 8). We note,
however, that the Examiner articulated logical reasons why one of ordinary skill in the art would have
made the combination. Namely, Pollet specifically describes the polyoxyethylene compounds as
accelerating or activating the development of exposed silver halide elements. Therefore, one of
ordinary skill in the art of photographic material manufacture would have incorporated the
polyoxyethylene compound of Pollet into the photographic material of Dickerson to accelerate and/or
activate development.
Appellants list twenty patents which they argue disclose accelerating thioether compounds in
silver halide materials. Appellants state that the fact that these twenty patents all disclose thioether
accelerators in other silver halide materials emphasizes that there is no reason to utilize the thioether
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