Appeal No. 2004-1043
Application No. 09/960,907
"missing parts", the Beck patent is not required to supply
what is already present. One skilled in the art would
recognize that the teachings of the desired particle size
in the Beck patent are relevant to any aluminum producing
electrolytic cell regardless of the cell layout.
v. Claims 35-37 and 40-43 patentable over combination (XII.
G, page 35-37)
Appellant states, "Applicant's invention as set forth
in the claims is patentable over the Beck paper taken
singly or combined with Steiger or Berclaz" (see
Appellant’s Brief, p. 36, last paragraph. In support,
Appellant relies upon structural differences in the
references.
The Examiner acknowledges that the Beck paper is
silent with regard to applying heat to the bottom of the
metal liner, and the Beck paper further teaches the use of
an insulating material surrounding the electrolytic
apparatus. However, Berclaz teaches the use of a heating
mechanism comprising an air sweep positioned beneath the
bottom the cell liner and teaches that the air space is
also used for insulation (see WO `120, p. 26, lines 25-36).
Therefore, Berclaz clearly provides motivation for
combining the heating mechanism of Berclaz with the method
of the Beck paper because it provides both the heating
function required in the Beck paper and also provides
additional insulating function as desired in the Beck
paper. The method of Steiger is relied upon to show the
equivalence of the order in which the method steps are
performed one skilled in the art would recognize that the
teaching of method step order in Steiger is relevant to any
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