Appeal No. 1999-0700 Page 11
Application No. 08/590,580
Pursuant to our authority under 37 CFR § 1.196(b), we enter the following new ground of
rejection of claims 1-4, 8-12 and 19-23.
Claims 1-4, 8-12 and 19-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over
Kok in view of Lowe and Knapick.
The test for obviousness is what the combined teachings of the references would have
suggested to one of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Young, 927 F.2d 588, 591, 18 USPQ2d 1089,
1091 (Fed. Cir. 1991) and In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 425, 208 USPQ 871, 881 (CCPA 1981).
Indeed, a prima facie case of obviousness is established where the reference teachings would appear
to be sufficient for one of ordinary skill in the art having those teachings before him to make the
proposed combination or modification. See In re Lintner, 458 F.2d 1013, 1016, 173 USPQ 560, 562
(CCPA 1972). Moreover, in evaluating such references it is proper to take into account not only the
specific teachings of the references but also the inferences which one skilled in the art would reasonably
be expected to draw therefrom. In re Preda, 401 F.2d 825, 826, 159 USPQ 342, 344 (CCPA
1968).
As discussed above, Kok discloses a process for the preparation of a liquid absorbing
material from "fibrous waste sludge" comprising the steps of partially dewatering the waste
sludge to yield a semi-dry mass having a water content from 40 to 80%, preferably 55 to 65%,
by weight, forming the fibrous mass into a pelletized configuration and drying the pellets
(abstract and column 2, lines 57-66). Kok points out that the dumping of sludge from paper
Page: Previous 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007