Appeal No. 2004-0495 Paper 22
Application No. 09/503,599 Page 4
II. Issues
Claims 1-33 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over
Kurian in view of Armstrong.
III. Grouping of claims
Appellants' Brief fails to include a "Grouping of Claims" statement as required by
37 CFR § 1.192(c)(7). However, appellants argue that claims 16, 17, 20-26 and 28-33
as separately patentable because the preheated 1,3-propanediol and preheated
terephthalic acid ester, either as a mixture or separately, are fed to the ester exchange
vessel at or below the midpoint of the vessel (Brief, pp. 3 and 9-12) and the examiner
has separately addressed claims 16, 17 and 21 (Answer, p. 5). Therefore, since both
appellants and the examiner have considered claims 16, 17, 20-26 and 28-33 as a
separate group of claims, this decision focuses on claims 1 and 16.
IV. Discussion
A. The prior art
Kurian discloses a process for making bis(3-hydroxypropyl) terephthalate
monomer, comprising contacting a C1-C4 dialkyl ester of terephthalic acid with 1,3-
propanediol in the presence of a lanthanum compound catalyst at a temperature from
about 155oC to about 245oC with a mole ratio of 1,3-propanediol to ester of about 1.1:1
to about 2.2:1 at about atmospheric pressure3 in a reaction vessel in which the
transesterification reaction occurs generally within about 0.5 to about 4 hours (c. 1, ll.
49-58; c. 3, ll. 24-35). Kurian's process may be performed as either a batch or
3 One atmosphere pressure is about 760 mm Hg.
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