Appeal No. 2006-1161
Application No. 10/322,254
We agree with the Examiner that, once reactants have been separated from
product, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to recycle the starting
materials “for the purpose of more efficient conversion of unreacted components.” Lewis
at 995. Appellants do not argue to the contrary, but rather state “step d) first requires step
c), which . . . Kimoto cannot anticipate. As a result, it makes no sense to proceed with
step d) and there can be no rationale to combine Kimoto with the Dictionary reference.”
Brief at 9. Given that step c) is either inherently disclosed in or suggested by Kimoto, a
skilled artisan would have been motivated to proceed with step d), as the Examiner
found. See Answer at 5.
Claim 1 also requires “adding hexfluoropropylene oxide (HFPO) in an amount
such that X-Rf-COF remains in molar excess of HFPO by at least 10%.” Appellants
argue that “Kimoto fails to anticipate and teaches away from” this claim limitation. Brief
at 8.
The Examiner responds:
Kimoto et al. do suggest using the X-Rf-COF in molar excess of HFPO
by at least 10% (see column 11, lines 50-52 wherein it is taught that
one can use a molar ratio of HFPO to FSO2(CF2)nCOF from about 1/20
to about 100/1). Thus, at the ratios ranging from 10:1 up to 20:1
[FSO2(CF2)nCOF:HFPO], Kimoto teaches using the FSO2(CF2)nCOF in
a molar excess of at least 10% relative to the HFPO. Kimoto further
goes on to teach that when the compound having the structure disclosed
in column 11, lines 53-58 has a low p value, for example when p is 0 or
1, the relative proportion of FSO2(CF2)nCOF is increased. Thus,
implying that if one wants to obtain the monoaddition product, i.e., p
equal to zero, then one should use higher amounts of the
FSO2(CF2)nCOF reactant relative to the HFPO reactant. [Answer at 5.]
Appellant does not dispute that the claimed “at least 10% molar excess” language
falls within Kimoto’s disclosed range of reactants, i.e., the “applicable molar ratio of
9
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007