Appeal No. 1997-2632
Application No. 08/163,902
insecticidal soil amendment and the product thereof.
According to appellant (specification, pages 2 and 3),
diatomaceous earth (diatomite) is a known insecticidal agent
and is used for other purposes, such as a filtering agent in
brewery processes. Appellant discloses that spent filtering
aids containing diatomite that have been used in a brewery
process are clogged with organic material, hence they are not
useful in that form as a soil amendment (specification, pages
3 and 4). The subject matter at issue herein relates to (1)
appellant's disclosed method of treating such used filtering
aids via composting to cause decay of the retained organics in
the used filtering aid and (2) the product of such treatment.
The compost product mixture is allegedly useful as an
insecticidal soil amendment. See pages 5 and 6 of the
specification. An understanding of the invention can be
derived from a reading of exemplary claims 1 and 3, which are
reproduced below.
1. A method for making an insecticidal soil amendment,
comprising:
mixing a used filtering agent and a compostable
material, the filtering agent being characterized in that the
filtering agent includes diatomite that has retained certain
organic particulates resulting from a prior use of the
filtering agent, and composting the mixture a sufficient
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007