Appeal No. 2001-0955
Application No. 08/815,971
property (i.e., flavor) of the food comprising an aqueous suspension of charged silica
particles and to a method of modifying the properties of a food with such a composition.
This appealed subject matter is adequately illustrated by independent claim 28
which reads as follows:
28. A composition for treating food to alter a property of the food
comprising an aqueous suspension of charged silica particles wherein
said aqueous suspension of charged silica particles is generated by slowly
lowering the pH of an initial alkaline silica solution while the solution is
continuously circulated through a magnetic field to produce charged,
relatively stable, colloidal silica particles of size between about 10 and 100
angstroms.
No references have been relied upon by the examiner in the sole rejection
before us on this appeal.
All of the claims on appeal are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 “because the
invention as disclosed is inoperative and therefore lacks patentable utility.” (answer
page 3). According to the examiner “[t]he [appellant‘s] assertion of improving the
properties mainly enhancing the flavor of the food treated with the charged silica is not
credible” (answer page 3). In this regard, the examiner states “it is not known that silica
is a flavorant by itself” and therefore concludes that “[t]he asserted utility is not
credible in view of what is known in the art (see the decision set forth in Fregeau v.
2
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