Appeal No. 2001-1234
Application 08/658,983
Ransford does not disclose feeding into the reaction vessel a
mixture of bromine and molten diphenylalkane.
GB ‘524 discloses a process for brominating an aromatic
compound by introducing the aromatic compound into a reaction
vessel containing 0.5-100% of the amount of bromine required for
the reaction, the additional bromine being added “parallel to”
the aromatic compound (page 1, lines 25-33). GB ‘524 also
discloses “placing in the reactor a certain quantity of the
bromine necessary and then introducing with agitation the product
to be brominated on the one hand and the additional quantity of
bromine on the other” (page 2, lines 17-21). In example 11,
bromine and molten diphenyl are added through separate feed
flasks to a reactor containing bromine and an anhydrous aluminum
chloride bromination catalyst, and decabromodiphenyl is produced
at 30-50ºC. GB ‘524 does not disclose feeding a mixture of
bromine and molten aromatic compound into the reactor.
The examiner argues that in the absence of unobvious results
the order of addition of reactants is not crucial and, therefore,
changes in the order of addition of the reactants would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art (answer, pages 5-6).
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