Appeal No. 1998-2012 Application 08/657,556 that it would have been obvious to run the first reaction of the process disclosed in Mestepey by contacting the uranium hexafluoride with a liquid solution of hydrogen fluoride and water as suggested by Grant, the examiner has failed to explain why one of ordinary skill in the art would have subsequently boiled that liquid solution to form a vapor as claimed in step (c). Furthermore, to the extent that Mestepey uses a condenser (18) in the disclosed process, it does not appear that "a mixed gas and liquid state" is formed as in step (d) of the claimed method. Compare step (d) of claim 1 ("condensing said combination to form a mixed gas and liquid state, said gas state being comprised of essentially oxygen and said liquid state being comprised of hydrogen fluoride and water") with col. 4, lines 13-18 (condenser 18 separates outlet stream 38 into (1) substantially pure commercial grade liquid anhydrous hydrogen fluoride and (2) oxygen gas). For the reasons set forth above, we cannot sustain the rejection of claims 1-13 under 35 U.S.C. § 103. See In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443, 1445, 24 USPQ2d 1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir. 1992) (the examiner bears the initial burden of presenting a -6-Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007