Appeal No. 2005-0157
Application No. 09/977,363
The examiner relies upon the following reference as
evidence of obviousness:
Tsuji et al. (JP ‘906) JP 07-230906 Aug. 29, 1995
Appellants’ claimed invention is directed to preparing a
rare earth metal-based permanent magnet comprising the formation
of a metal oxide film which contains carbon on the surface of the
magnet by a sol-gel coating process.
Appealed claims 9, 10 and 14-17 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over JP ‘609.
Appellants group the appealed claims as follows:
I. Claims 9, 10, 14 and 15;
II. Claims 16 and 17.
Accordingly, claims 10, 14 and 15 stand or fall together
with claim 9, and claim 17 stands or falls together with claim
16.
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
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007