Appeal No. 2001-0899 5
Application No. 08/799,174
See column 3, lines 30-51. No zeolites other than zeolite A types are disclosed by
Baldyga. Moreover, there is no assertion by the examiner that the molecular sieves
disclosed in Baldyga are in the form of an alkali metal zeolite as required by the claimed
subject matter. To the contrary, however, the appellants have stated, “that all of those
naturally occurring molecular sieves are calcium zeolites.” See Reply Brief, page 2. We
further find that conventional organo-zinc stabilizers are disclosed among a large group of
stabilizers disclosed by Baldyga. See column 3, lines 64 and 67, column 4, lines 7 and 8.
The secondary reference to Kashiwase discusses the primary reference in column 1,
lines 44-46 and is directed to an improvement in the performance of the stabilizer by
substituting Group II or Group IV A metal salts in place of Group I metal ions present in
the zeolites. See column 2, lines 16-27. Among the zeolites preferred zeolite A remains
one of the particularly preferred zeolites. See column 2, lines 52-54. We find that the
amount of residual Group I metal ion remaining is less than 10% and preferably less than
5%. See column 3, lines 24-32.
The examiner has given no reason or suggestion to combine the references.
Nonetheless even if we considered Kashiwase to be an improvement over Baldyga and
substituted the Group II or IV metal ions for those present in the primary reference, we
would obtain a composition preferably constituting zeolite A substituted with multivalent
ion in combination with stabilizers including zinc.
Based upon the above considerations, even if the examiner was correct in combining
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