Appeal No. 1998-2349
Application 08/586,874
obviousness to be established, the applied prior art must have
provided one of ordinary skill in the art with a motivation to
remove bromine and a reasonable expectation of success in
doing so. See In re Vaeck, 947 F.2d 488, 493, 20 USPQ2d 1438,
1442 (Fed. Cir. 1991); In re O’Farrell, 853 F.2d 894, 902, 7
USPQ2d 1673, 1680 (Fed. Cir. 1988). Appellant acknowledges
that it was known in the art that free bromine causes
hydrochloric acid to have a yellow color (specification, page
1). Thus, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been
motivated to remove the bromine. The examiner, however, has
not established that one of ordinary skill in the art would
have had a reasonable expectation of success in doing so.
That is, the examiner has not established that one of ordinary
skill in the art would have reasonably expected 1) Takatomi’s
strong anion exchange resin to function effectively in the
presence of bromine, and 2) the reductants of Takatomi and
Wilson to be effective for removing bromine. Hence, the
examiner has not established that it would have been prima
facie obviousness to one of ordinary skill in the art to apply
the processes of the applied references to hydrochloric acid
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