Appeal No. 2001-0754
Application 09/040,276
Büschken’s process differs from the alkaline earth metal salt
catalyst embodiment in the appellant’s claim 1 only in that
the ring in Büschken’s starting material and product is
saturated, whereas the appellant’s starting material and
product have a double bond at the 3-4 position. Thus,
Büschken’s starting material has a potential site for reaction
with hydrogen peroxide only at the secondary amine group of
the
ring, whereas the appellant’s starting material has potential
reaction sites both at this position and at the double bond.
The examiner correctly points out that Büschken’s
reaction conditions (col. 3, lines 42-57) are the same as
those of the appellant (specification, page 5, line 19 - page
6, line 6). The examiner argues that for this reason and
because the -NH- reaction site is the same in the starting
materials of Büschken and the appellant, one of ordinary skill
in the art would have had a reasonable expectation that the
product formed in Büschken’s process would be the same as the
product formed in the appellant’s process (answer, pages 4-6).
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