Appeal No. 1996-1644
Application No. 07/933,147
In view of the foregoing, we reverse the examiner’s
decision rejecting all of the appealed claims under 35 U.S.C.
§ 112, second paragraph.
OBVIOUSNESS
The novel aspect of the claimed subject matter lies in
oxidizing the surface of a diamond with a RF oxygen plasma to
improve coating adhesion. See, e.g., specification, pages 6-
8. According to appellants (Brief, pages 3 and 4):
Skilled practitioners recognize that certain
chemical functional groups, when attached to a
surface, will impart certain properties to that
surface. These properties (such as wettability,
reactivity, amenability to binding to a catalyst,
chemical or biological recognition, to name a few)
will be desired by skilled practitioners for many
applications. Thus, a skilled practitioner who
desires a diamond surface with a given property
will, using this invention, oxidize a diamond
surface according to the process of the invention,
and graft a chemical containing a functional group
for imparting this property onto the diamond
surface, via a chemisorption reaction.
As evidence of obviousness of the claimed subject matter
under 35 U.S.C. § 103, the examiner primarily relies on either
Mino or Suzuki alone or in view of Sato. The examiner also
relies on Cozzette or Ueno for obviousness of the subject
matter of dependent claims 6 and 8.
8
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