Appeal No. 1997-2263
Application No. 08/266,388
The examiner argues, in reliance upon In re Kerkhoven, 626
F.2d 846, 205 USPQ 1069 (CCPA 1980), that it would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Sugier’s
fatty acid oligo-dialkanolamides with Walton’s polyoxyalkylene
phosphate ester to form a third composition for the same use
(answer, pages 5 and 6). In Kerkhoven, the court stated,
regarding the issue of the obviousness of combining two active
detergents, that “[i]t is prima facie obvious to combine two
compositions each of which is taught by the prior art to be
useful for the same purpose, in order to form a third
composition which is to be used for the very same purpose.” See
Kerkhoven, 626 F.2d at 850, 205 USPQ at 1072. The examiner has
not established that such a situation exists in the present
case.
Walton discloses a process for removing paraffin formations
from a producing oil well by shutting down the well, removing
the production equipment from the hole, contacting the interior
of the well with a heated mixture of a paraffin dispersing
amount of an alkyl or aralkyl polyoxyalkylene phosphate ester
surfactant in the free acid, alkali metal, amine or ammonium
3
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