Appeal No. 1997-3337
Application No. 08/189,899
that one of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to
heat a dispersion of sugar, a lower alcohol or lower ketone in
the presence of an acid catalyst to produce a first reaction
product as required by claims 1 and 31. Muller ‘027 and ‘881
relate to a process for producing a starch containing material
suitable for fermentation. On this record, there is no
evidence that the sugars described in Muller ‘027 and ‘881
would be suitable for use as an intermediate compound in the
process of Stiff. Further, we have not been directed to the
advantages which would be obtained or the suitability of using
the sugar compounds of Muller ‘027 and ‘881 in the process of
Stiff. The mere fact that the prior art could be modified
would not have made the modification obvious unless the prior
art suggested the desirability of the modification. In re
Gordon, 733 F.2d 900, 902, 221 USPQ 1125, 1127 (Fed. Cir.
1984); In re Laskowski, 871 F.2d 115, 117, 10 USPQ2d 1397,
1398 (Fed. Cir. 1989).
Claims 17 is drawn to an ignition promoter compound
prepared by a specific process. Claim 24 is drawn to a fuel
composition which contains an ignition promoter compound
prepared by a specific process. It is a well known
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