Appeal No. 2006-1079
Application No. 10/139,085
plating solution includes silver ions, water, and a complexing agent (col.
21, line 51-co1. 2, line 5,. col. 33, lines 1-%.)
Final Rejection, p. 2, ¶ 2.
Claims 1-3, 6, 8, 10 and 11
Appellants argue that Whitney fails to disclose “one or more azole compounds
and one or more of the certain chelating agents as required by Appellants’ claims.” Brief,
p. 6. We disagree.
Whitney’s etchant composition contains two separate components (c) and (d).
Whitney states that, in one embodiment, component (c) is a nitrogen containing
heterocyclic compound selected from triazoles, tetrazoles, imidazoles, pyrazoles and
purines. Col. 11, ll. 37-40. See Whitney claim 27. Whitney further states that in one
embodiment, component (d) comprises one or more heterocyclic compounds selected
from thiophenes, thiazoles, isothiazoles, thiadiazoles and thiatriazoles. Col. 11, ll. 56-59.
See Whitney claim 30. Thus, Whitney discloses a composition comprising an azole
compound and a thio-containing ligand (see Spec., paragraph bridging pp. 6-7 (“[s]uch
chelating agents may be . . . thio-containing ligands such as thioglycolic acid and
diethyldithiocarbamate”)) as recited in the present claims.2 See Examiner’s Answer, p. 7,
last paragraph.
The rejection is affirmed.
2 Appellants further argue that claims 1, 11 and 14 do not claim a “polyhydric
compound,” but are directed to certain chelating agents, none of which are disclosed in
Whitney. Appeal Brief, p. 7. We fail to see any merit in this argument given Appellants’
explicit disclosure that the chelating agents may be “polyhydric compounds such as 2,
2’,2”-nitriolotriethanol” (Spec., p. 7), which is among the chelating agents recited in
claims 1, 11 and 14.
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