Appeal No. 1998-3106
Application 08/679,603
The appellants argue that one of ordinary skill in the
art would not have been motivated to combine the references
(brief, pages 3-4). The motivation would have been to obtain
the benefits disclosed in the secondary references of an
organotitanium compound and a metal chelate as discussed
above.
The appellants argue that adhesion results can vary
depending on the combination of ingredients in the composition
and upon the substrate, and that predictability from one
system to the next cannot be made (brief, pages 5 and 7). For
a prima facie case of obviousness to be established, however,
all that is required is a reasonable expectation of success,
not absolute certainty. See In re O’Farrell, 853 F.2d 894,
903-04, 7 USPQ2d 1673, 1681 (Fed. Cir. 1988). The similarity
of the compositions of Schulz, Bilgrien and Gray discussed
above would have provided one of ordinary skill in the art
with a reasonable expectation of success in adding Bilgrien’s
organotitanium compound and Gray’s metal chelate to Schulz’s
composition to obtain the benefits of these components
disclosed by Bilgrien and Gray.
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