Appeal No. 2001-0421
Application 08/926,835
caused to be present in the reaction mixture. Indeed, a number
of reaction mixture ingredients, such as the iridium catalysts,
are disclosed as being added exogenously or generated in situ.
Id., at the paragraph bridging pages 16 and 17.
As for the acid ingredient specifically, the appellants
disclose no preference for the manner by which the acid is caused
to be present in the reaction mixture. Instead, they generically
teach that “[t]he process according to the invention further
comprises the additional concomitant use of an acid.” Id., at
page 18. While at least some of the specification examples
indicate that the acid is added exogenously, it is important to
stress that the appellants’ specification contains no disclosure
of a preference for how the acid is caused to be present in the
reaction mixture. Presumably, this is because, as previously
mentioned, it is the presence of the acid in the reaction
mixture, rather than how it is supplied thereto, which yields
increased catalyst activity in the appellants’ claimed process.
In light of the above discussed specification disclosure,
one with ordinary skill in this art would interpret the appealed
claims as requiring that the process reaction mixture “contains
an acid” (independent claims 1 and 36) without regard to the
manner by which this requirement is achieved. This
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