Appeal No. 2004-1877
Application No. 09/178,512
120°C. Also, the effective alkali concentrations of the three
treatments are all less than 30 g/L.
Appealed claims 1-8 and 10-20 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103(a) as being unpatentable over Chasse in view of Kettunen
and, optionally, Sandström.
Appellants submit at page 3 of the Brief that "[c]laims 1-8
and 10-20 may be grouped together for purpose of this appeal."
Accordingly, all the appealed claims stand or fall together with
claim 1, and we will limit our consideration to the examiner's
§ 103 rejection of claim 1.
We have thoroughly reviewed each of appellants' arguments
for patentability. However, we are in complete agreement with
the examiner that the claimed subject matter would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art within the meaning of
§ 103 in view of the applied prior art. Accordingly, we will
sustain the examiner's rejection for essentially those reasons
expressed in the Answer, and we add the following primarily for
emphasis.
Chasse, like appellants, is directed to a method of preparing
cellulose pulp from comminuted cellulosic fibrous material by
treating the fibrous material to successive alkali solutions at
increasing temperatures. Chasse teaches that "strength losses can
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