Appeal No. 2004-1861
Application No. 09/846,483
salicylate, e.g., calcium salicylate (column 2, lines 43-46),
which is an overbased detergent of interest to the appellants
(Oils 1 and 2 of the working examples), and should have a TBN
(ASTM D664) of between 175 and 500 (column 3, lines 28-31).
Clarke further teaches that the lubricating oil may be an
animal, vegetable, or mineral oil (column 1, lines 28-30), which
are some of the same lubricating oils described as suitable for
the invention in the present specification (page 4, lines 26-
27). In addition, Clarke discloses that suitable antioxidants
include zinc dialkyl dithiophosphates (column 4, lines 3-6),
which are disclosed in the present specification as preferred
antiwear additives (page 8, line 26 to page 10, line 8).
Given this disclosure in Clarke, we share the examiner’s
view that one of ordinary skill in the art would have been led,
prima facie, to formulate a lubricating oil composition
containing 60 to 85 parts by weight of an animal, vegetable, or
mineral oil, 15 to 30 parts by weight of one or more Group Ia or
IIa metal salicylates, and 0.2 to 5 parts by weight of zinc
dialkyl dithiophosphate, thus arriving at a lubricating oil
composition encompassed by appealed claim 1. Merck & Co. Inc.
rejection on the bases of these two representative claims. 37
CFR § 1.192(c)(7)(2003)(effective Apr. 21, 1995).
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