Appeal No. 2006-0340
Application No. 10/089,315
we do not find that one of ordinary skill in the art would
interpret the examiner's citation as being exclusive of a zinc-
based alloy.
We now turn to the examiner's § 103 rejection over the Zn Al
article in view of Hasui. There is no dispute that the article,
like appellant, discloses a method of protecting a submerged
marine surface by flame spraying a zinc-based alloy coating on
the marine surface. The article does not teach that the flame
spraying is performed by the electric arc, twin wire spraying of
the present claims. However, we concur with the examiner that
Hasui evidences the obviousness of employing a twin wire electric
arc spraying process for providing a zinc and zinc-based alloy
coating on a marine surface. As noted by the examiner, Hasui
discloses that one wire can be zinc and the other can be a zinc-
based alloy (column 4, lines 5-25). Accordingly, for the
reasons set forth at pages 9-11 of the Examiner's Answer, we find
that it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the
art to employ the twin wire spraying process of Hasui in the
process of the cited article for protecting a marine surface from
bio-fouling.
Appellant submits that "Hasui teaches that to obtain a
suitable protective coating on a marine surface, a pretreatment
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