Appeal No. 2001-2124
Application No. 09/416,914
With respect to the rejection over Schultze in view of Aihara and Hase, we adopt the
examiner’s position as stated in the Answer, pages 4 through 6, it being the examiner’s
position that Schultze discloses and teaches the method of claim 1 other than the particle size
of the core particles and the coating particles.
Schulze is directed to a coated pigmented phosphor and to a method for its
preparation. See column 1, lines 7-9. In addition to its disclosure of the claimed process as
found by the examiner, Schulze discloses heating the resulting dried phosphor at a
temperature of from 400o C to about 550o C for periods of about 2 hours to dehydrate a
silicate coating atop the phosphor and form a water insoluble glassy film silicate coating on the
pigmented phosphor. See column 3, lines 38-43 and Examples 1 through 3 which teach
heating for about 2 hours. The claimed subject matter requires “firing the mixture at a
temperature high enough to soften or melt the coating particles.” This limitation is expressly
disclosed in the specification at page 6, lines 5-14. The very next paragraph beginning in the
specification page 6, line 15 states that “[f]or forming a silica layer on phosphor powders,
firing can be carried out at a temperature of from about 500 to about 1100o C for from
about 20 to 120 minutes.” The teachings of Schulze, with respect to heating the silicate
coated phosphor, overlap that portion of the temperature range disclosed in the specification
between about 500 and about 550o C. We further find that Schulze utilizes both the lower
end of the temperature range, and the upper end of the time required to affect the changes in
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