Ex Parte RODUIT et al - Page 4



          Appeal No. 2001-1932                                                        
          Application No. 08/829,512                                                  

          Answer, Paper No. 21, mailed June 9, 1999, page 3.  The examiner            
          further relies on Suto as teaching the claimed catalyst.  Id.               
          The examiner acknowledges that although Suto discloses an                   
          aromatic chloride which includes pyridine chloride and that the             
          starting material may be substituted on the ring, Suto does not             
          specifically disclose that the substituent may be phenoxy as                
          required by the claims.  Id.  The examiner also notes that Suto             
          discloses an amide in example 8 which, when substituted by a                
          phenoxy group, is a known herbicide as disclosed in CA ‘849.                
          Id., page 4.                                                                
               According to the examiner, “[i]t would have been obvious to            
          one ordinarily skilled in the art to have used the process of               
          Suto to prepare compounds with phenoxy substituent                          
          as in CA ‘849 with the expectation of obtaining a useful                    
          herbicide.  Although the Suto example gives a specific pyridine             
          chloride, its isomers are not excluded since they are obvious               
          variants.”  Examiner’s Answer, page 4, second paragraph.                    
               Appellants maintain that                                               
               [w]hile Suto discloses generically the starting organic                
               (aromatic or heterocyclic) chloride and gives examples                 
               thereof, Suto et al. does not give any examples of                     
               appellants’ starting material.  This is important                      
               because catalytic activity is unpredictable, Suto et                   
               al. does not disclose appellants’ starting material,                   
               and, accordingly, the catalytic activity or lack                       
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