Appeal No. 1999-0715
Application No. 08/486,173
hardening agent was known in the art. Consequently, since the
foundation of the examiner’s rejection is deficient in fact,
it must fall.
One final point remains. While we agree with appellants
that there is no admission in their specification that the
claimed mixture of paste and hardening agent was known in the
prior art, it is not clear to us that appellants are
categorically stating that it was unknown in the prior art to
formulate the claimed silver-silicone paste commercially
available from CMI with a curing or hardening agent. We point
out that Example I at page 6 of appellants’ specification
states
that the silver-silicone paste consists of uncured silicone
resin. Hence, a legitimate question is raised whether it was
conventional in the art to incorporate a curing or hardening
agent in the silver-silicone paste. If the answer to that
question is in the affirmative, it remains to be developed on
the present record whether it would have been obvious for one
5
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007