Appeal No. 2003-1525
Application 09/462,876
remaining as an impurity in the cBN (col. 3, lines 22-35; col. 6,
lines 14-28), but does not appear to provide the teaching
referred to by the appellants. Suzuki teaches, to the contrary,
that the cBN has high strength (col. 2, line 14; col. 5,
line 39).
The appellants argue that the starting materials of Suzuki
and Kawasaki have higher crystallinity than the appellants’
starting material and that, therefore, the appellants’ claimed
process is different than that of Suzuki or Kawasaki (brief,
pages 13-14). This argument is not relevant to the issue of
whether the applied references would have fairly suggested, to
one of ordinary skill in the art, the process as claimed, which
is not limited to any particular crystallinity.
The appellants argue that “Suzuki et al. disclose a process
for producing cBN by direct conversion; however, Suzuki et al.
employ pyrolytic BN as a starting material” (brief, page 13).
Actually, Suzuki does not limit the starting material to pBN but,
rather, teaches that “as the starting material, it is required to
employ a low pressure phase boron nitride having a high purity,
such as pyrolytic boron nitride” (col. 4, lines 23-25).
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