Appeal No. 1998-0558
Application No. 08/564,942
claims recite ethylbenzene or paraxylene. The process of
claim 23 calls for activating the catalyst by first oxidizing
the metal component of the catalyst with a circulating stream
of nitrogen and 1 percent oxygen, purging the reactor with
pure hydrogen, and circulating pure hydrogen through the
reactor at the recited conditions of temperature and pressure.
Appealed claim 32, on the other hand, does not define any
particular conditions for activating the
catalyst, but provides for separating the effluent from the
reactor into a hydrogen-rich fraction, a hydrocarbon-rich
fraction containing benzene and toluene, and a second fraction
enriched in C alkyl aromatic content.
8
Appellant submits at page 7 of the principal brief that
the appealed claims "do not stand or fall together for the
reasons set forth below." However, although appellant
presents separate arguments for claims 32-34, appellant has
advanced no arguments that are reasonably specific to any of
claims 2-5, 8, 23-26, 30 and 31. Accordingly claims 2-5, 8,
5
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