Appeal No. 2000-2179
Application No. 09/235,242
or neutralization of the alkaline catalyst, in the presence of a
suitable catalyst, such as Raney nickel, to form the
alkoxypropylamine. See column 4, lines 35-53; and column 4, line
65 to column 5, line 52, examples 1 and 2.
As recognized by the examiner (Answer, page 4), O’Lenick
does not mention that the cyanoethylation alkaline catalyst
employed is the claimed diazabicycloalkene catalyst. The
examiner, however, finds that Green teaches reacting alcohol with
acrylonitrile in the presence of a cyanoethylation alkaline
catalyst, such as the claimed diazabicycloalkene catalyst, to
form $-alkoxypropionitrile.1
Therefore, the examiner concludes, and we agree, that it
would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in
the art to employ a suitable cyanoethylation alkaline catalyst,
such as the claimed diazabicycloalkene catalyst, in the process
of O’Lenick.
The appellants argue that one of ordinary skill in the art
would have been taught away from hydrogenating the product
resulting from the cyanoethylation, i.e., $-alkoxypropionitrile,
1 We deem Sullivan to be cumulative since the examiner
relies on it to show that the claimed diazabicycloalkene catalyst
is known to be useful for making $-alkoxypropionitrile
acrylonitrile.
4
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007