Appeal No. 1999-1008
Application 08/713,905
in the vapor phase at a temperature of from about 50 to about 800°C under pressure.
3. An ether isocyanate selected from the group consisting of 2-(2-isocyanate-propoxy)-1-
propyl isocyanate, 1,1'-oxydi-2-propyl isocyanate, 2,2'-oxydi-1-propyl isocyanate and mixtures
thereof having a hydrolyzable chlorine content of less than 0.1%.
Appealed claims 1 and 2 as represented by claim 1, are drawn to a process comprising
reacting an ether (poly)amine with at least a stoichiometric amount of phosgene, or a phosgene
generating compound, in the vapor phase at a temperature in the specified range and under
pressure to obtain the ether (poly)isocyanate. Appealed claim 3 is drawn to one of or mixtures of
the three specified ether isocyanates which compounds and mixtures have a hydrolyzable
chlorine content of less than 0.1%, which ether isocyanate products are used in the process of
producing a urethane specified in claim 4.
The references relied on by the examiner are:
Lehmann et al. (Lehmann) 3,267,122 Aug. 16, 1966
Joulak et al. (Joulak) 5,391,683 Feb. 21, 1995
Biskup et al. (Biskup) 5,449,818 Sep. 12, 1995
Bischof et al. (Bischof) 5,516,935 May 14, 1996
The examiner has rejected appealed claims 1 and 22 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Lehmann in view of Joulak or Biskup or Bischof (answer, pages 5-7). The
examiner has rejected appealed claims 3 and 4 under 35 U.S.C. § 112, first paragraph, as
containing subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to
reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor(s), at the time the
application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention (id., pages 3-4).
Appellants state in their brief (page 3) that in view of the separate grounds of rejection,
2 Claim 2, as it stands of record (see above note 1), contains error in chemical formula (I) used to
defining “ether (poly)amine a)” because the definitions of all of formula members and subscript
“n” will not generate a polyamine when “n represents 1, 2 or 3” and “X represents H . . . or
C(R3)4-n” and when “n represents . . . 2 or 3” and “X represents . . . NH2” unless one of “R1, R2
and R3” is “optionally substituted” by an amino group, that is not otherwise expressly provided
for, and the only substituent “R” that can form “a direct bond of X to the ether oxygen atom
bonded to R2” is “R1” as originally presented and not any “R” as now specified. These errors
should be consider with respect to whether claim 2 complies with 35 U.S.C. § 112, second
paragraph, upon any further prosecution of this claim before the examiner.
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