Appeal No. 2003-1740
Application No. 09/801,301
The examiner relies upon the following references as
evidence of obviousness:
Gago et al. (Gago) 4,879,839 Nov. 14, 1989
Bäbler (Bäbler) 5,584,922 Dec. 17, 1996
Schmidt et al. (Schmidt) 6,146,455 Nov. 14, 2000
Appellants' claimed invention is directed to a colored seed
wherein the seed is coated with a pigment composition having the
recited particle size ranges for the pigment particles.
Appealed claims 1-7, 10-16, 18, 19, 21 and 22 stand rejected
under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Bäbler in view
of Schmidt. Claims 8, 9, 17, 20 and 23 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over the stated combination
of references further in view of Gago.
We have thoroughly reviewed the respective positions
advanced by appellants and the examiner. In so doing, we find
that the examiner has failed to establish a prima facie case of
obviousness for the claimed subject matter. Accordingly, we will
not sustain the examiner's rejections.
In essence, we concur with appellants that there would have
been no motivation or suggestion in the cited prior art for one
of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the stir-in organic
pigments of Bäbler for coating seeds. As noted by appellants,
Bäbler provides no teaching or suggestion that the disclosed
-2-
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007