Appeal No. 1997-4318
Application 08/469,806
be expressly suggested in any one or all of the references. Rather, the test is what the combined
teachings of the references would have suggested to those of ordinary skill in the art.”); In re Boesch,
617 F.2d 272, 275-76, 205 USPQ 215, 218-19 (CCPA 1980), and cases cited therein (The
“discovery of an optimum value of a result effective variable in a known process is ordinarily within the
skill of the art.”).
We have carefully considered the examiner’s application of prior art to the claimed
microgranulate inorganic pigment compositions and the processes using the same encompassed by
claims 13 and 26, as we have interpreted above, on the record as we find it in light of the examiner’s
position that the combined teachings of Jungk and the other applied prior art would have led one of
ordinary skill in this art “to have substituted the inorganic sodium silicate binders of the secondary
references [for the organic binders] in the production of Jungk’s microgranulates . . . [because the
inorganic] binder . . . promotes the dispersion of the pigments in the concrete,” since the substitution of
“the inorganic sodium silicate binders of the secondary references” for the organic binders of Jungk
amounts to the obvious omission of the organic binders and its function that are not needed for the
pigment granules disclosed in that reference (answer, pages 5, second and third paragraphs, and page
6, first paragraph; see also, e.g., page 8, second and third paragraphs, page 10, first paragraph).
Viewed from another perspective, it appears that the examiner’s position (answer, e.g., page 9,
last full sentence) is that, prima facie, one of ordinary skill in this art would have found in the combined
teachings of the applied references the suggestion to combine inorganic pigments known to be useful in
colouring concrete with sodium silicate to obtain a microgranulate pigment composition that can be used
in a process of colouring concrete, because Jungk discloses the use of binders to promote dispersing the
pigment in the concrete and the other references establish that sodium silicate is recognized in a variety
of arts as a binder for inorganic materials, including such inorganic pigments, that are formed into
granulates for dispersion in a variety of aqueous and non-aqueous media which are used for different
purposes, in the reasonable expectation of arriving at the claimed invention wherein the sodium silicate is
present in the microgranulate in the amount specified and the microgranulate will break down and
disperse the pigment in the particulate building material.
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