Appeal No. 1998-2409
Application 08/398,259
reasonably appears to be met by Moroishi’s teaching that Ca, Mg,
etc. can be present in the melt such that they combine with
sulfur to eliminate the adverse effects of free sulfur (col. 3,
lines 48-58; col. 6, lines 47-51). The requirement in claim 4
that a scavenger element is reacted with free sulfur to reduce
the free sulfur content to 1 ppm, the requirement in claim 5 that
the scavenger is yttrium, hafnium or zirconium, and the
requirement in claim 6 that the substrate is processed to reduce
the free sulfur content to less than about 1 ppm, would have been
fairly suggested to one of ordinary skill in the art by
Moroishi’s teaching that Ca, Mg, rare earth or Y can be added to
form stable sulfur compounds from free sulfur, thereby
eliminating the undesirable effects of free sulfur (col. 3, lines
16-66; col. 6, lines 47-55).
For the above reasons we conclude, based upon the
preponderance of the evidence, that the invention recited in
appellants’ claims 1, 3-6, 14 and 16 would have been obvious to
one of ordinary skill in the art within the meaning of 35 U.S.C.
§ 103. Accordingly, we affirm the rejection over Moroishi in
view of McGill of these claims and claims 9-13, 15, 18 and 20
which each stand or fall with one of independent claims 1, 14
and 16 (brief, page 10).
-8-8
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007