Appeal No. 2001-1668
Application 09/036,754
thermally activating the resultant slip and waiting until decomposition products are
formed, said decomposition products changing said surface charge of the slip particles leading to
solidification, thus forming a wet ceramic green part; and
demolding the wet ceramic green part.
The appealed claims, as represented by claim 36, are drawn to a process for the
production of a ceramic green part which comprises at least the steps specified in the claim,
wherein an active substance, which is a chemical which is decomposable due to time delayed,
temperature sensitive reactions, is thermally activated to form decomposition products that
change the surface charge of the slip particles leading to solidification of the slip to form the
ceramic green part. Appealed claim 37 specifies that the active substance is a polymer with ester
groups. According to appellants, the claimed process “suppresses migration and heterogeneous
distributions of soluble components as the hardening step is not dominated by water withdrawal”
(specification, page 5).
The references relied on by the examiner are:
Bennett et al. (Bennett) 4,732,213 Mar. 22, 1988
Fleming et al. (Fleming) 4,775,401 Oct. 4, 1988
The examiner has rejected appealed claims 36 through 42 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
being unpatentable over Fleming in view of Bennett.
While appellants state in their brief (page 5) that “[a]ll claims should be separately
considered,” we find that specific, substantive arguments has been presented only with respect to
appealed claims 36 and 37. Thus, we decide this appeal based on appealed claims 36 and 37.
37 CFR § 1.192(c)(7) (2000).
We affirm the ground of rejection with respect to appealed claims 36 and reverse with
respect to appealed claims 37 through 42.
Rather than reiterate the respective positions advanced by the examiner and appellants,
we refer to the examiner’s answer and to appellants’ brief for a complete exposition thereof.
Opinion
We have carefully reviewed the record on this appeal and based thereon find ourselves in
agreement with the examiner that the claimed process for the production of a ceramic green part
encompassed by appealed claim 36 would have been obvious over the combined teachings of
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