Appeal No. 2004-1043
Application No. 09/960,907
cell allows the temperature of the cell to be controlled
and also provides thermal insulation in the form of an air
space when heating or cooling is not necessary.
IV. Claims 38-39 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as
being unpatentable over Beck ("A NON-CONSUMABLE METAL ANODE
FOR PRODUCTION OF ALUMINUM WITH LOW-TEMPERATURE FLUORIDE
MELTS,” Light Metals 1995, pp. 355-360) in view of
Steiger et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,181,583) and in
view of Berclaz (WO 98153120), as applied above to claims
35-37 and 40-43, and further in view of Beck et al. (U.S.
Pat. No. 4,865,701). (Although claim 39 depends from claim
2, it is treated in this section as though it depended from
claim 35, as explained in the Office action mailed December
12, 2002. Since Applicant has not changed the dependency
from claim 2, but has referred to as part of the group
consisting of claims 35-43 in section VII on page 5 of
Applicant's Appeal Brief, the claim has been treated for
both possibilities as it has been treated since the first
Office action.)
Beck, Steiger et al. and Berclaz describe a method
having the limitations recited in claims 35-37 and 40-43 of
the instant application, as explained above in section Ill.
The method described by Beck, Steiger et al. and
Berclaz differs from the instant invention because they do
not disclose the concentration of the alumina in the
slurry, as recited in claim 38, or the size of the alumina
particles, as recited in claim 39.
Beck et al. disclose the use of alumina particles in
the slurry having a concentration of al umina particles
within the range claimed in claim 38 of the instant
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