Appeal No. 1998-0434
Application 08/620,745
thiosulfate (col. 9, lines 57-58). The teaching that a water-
soluble aluminum salt acts as a hardener (col. 9, lines 67-68)
would have fairly suggested, to one of ordinary skill in the
art, use of such a salt to obtain this benefit. As for the
component containing tartaric, citric or gluconic acids or
their derivatives, alone or in combination, the specific
disclosure of only these three acids reasonably would have led
one of ordinary skill in the art to use any of the three, such
as gluconic acid, alone or in combination. The teaching that
the pH buffer is optional (col. 10, lines 10-12) would have
fairly suggested, to one of ordinary skill in the art,
omitting this component along with its function. See In re
Wilson, 377 F.2d 1014, 1017, 153 USPQ 740, 742 (CCPA 1967); In
re Larson, 340 F.2d 965, 969, 144 USPQ 347, 350 (CCPA 1965);
In re Brown, 228 F.2d 247, 249, 108 USPQ 232, 234 (CCPA 1955).
The teaching that the fixing solution can be concentrated
(col. 15, line 60; col. 16, lines 29-30) would have led one of
ordinary skill in the art to make each of the fixing solutions
within the scope of the disclosure in concentrated form for
the conventional reasons for using a concentrated solution,
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