Appeal No. 1998-1278
Application No. 08/603,186
effectiveness and working capacity. The phrase “an absorbent
solution consisting essentially of an aqueous hindered amine
solution” in claims 1 and 10 does not preclude the presence of
the tertiary amine in the claimed absorbent solution. The
appellants have not demonstrated that the basic and novel
characteristics of their invention would be materially affected
by the presence of the tertiary amine in the claimed absorbent
solution. See, e.g., In re De Lajarte, 337 F.2d 870, 874, 143
USPQ 256, 258 (CCPA 1964).
The appellants argue that Pearce does not specifically
mention employing a carbon steel acid gas purification apparatus.
See the Brief, page 15. However, we find that Pearce clearly
teaches that its corrosion inhibitors are useful for all
conventional acid gas purification metal apparatuses, inclusive
of a conventional carbon steel acid purification apparatus, as
taught by Butwell, page 4, and Foroulis, page 23. Moreover, we
find that Butwell teaches carbon steels are a good corrosion
resistant material useful for forming an acid purification
apparatus (column 4, lines 33-44) even though, according to
Foroulis (page 23), they can still be corroded during the acid
gas purification process. Thus, we concur with the examiner that
it would have been prima facie obvious to employ conventional
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