Appeal No. 1997-2196 Application No. 08/138,581 The claims stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as follows: claims 1-18 and 21 over Stern or Henry, and claims 19, 20 and 22-37 over Fukuoka. OPINION We have carefully considered all of the arguments advanced by appellants and the examiner and agree with appellants that the aforementioned rejections are not well founded. Accordingly, we reverse these rejections. The examiner argues that the applied references disclose reacting amines, in the presence of metal promoters as a catalyst, with carbon dioxide or with carbon dioxide and a hydroxy compound, that the claims differ from the references only in that a different amine is used as the starting material, and that one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected appellants’ amines and those in the references to react similarly (answer, pages 3-4). This argument is not well taken because, although appellants have challenged the argument (brief, page 4; reply brief, pages 2-3), the1 examiner has provided no supporting evidence which establishes This argument relies, in part, upon Smolin.1 3Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007