Appeal No. 2000-0053
Application 08/829,863
The Federal Circuit has held that the process of Sydansk
is nonanalogous art with respect to the process of Clay. See
In re Clay, 966 F.2d 656, 660, 23 USPQ2d 1058, 1061 (Fed. Cir.
1992). The test set forth by the court for determining
whether a reference is analogous art is “(1) whether the art
is from the same field of endeavor, regardless of the problem
addressed, and (2) if the reference is not within the field of
the inventor’s endeavor, whether the reference still is
reasonably pertinent to the particular problem with which the
inventor is involved.” Clay, 966 F.2d at 658-59, 23 USPQ2d at
1060. The court stated that Sydansk’s field of endeavor,
which is the extraction of crude petroleum and involves the
use of a gel at significant well bore pressures and
temperatures as high as 115ºC in unconfined and irregular
volumes in underground natural oil-bearing formations, differs
from Clay’s field of endeavor, which is the storage of refined
liquid hydrocarbon products and involves the use of gel in a
confined dead volume of a storage tank. See Clay, 966 F.2d at
659, 23 USPQ2d at 1060. The court also stated that the
problem which Sydansk addressed, which is recovering oil from
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