Appeal No. 2006-1660
Application No. 10/609,087
expressly teaches that "the components including the dihalogen
aromatic compound, the sodium hydrosulfide, the alkali metal
aminoalkanoate, and the lithium halide may be added or contacted
in any order to or in the organic polar solvent as long as they
can be polymerized in the organic polar solvent" (column 6,
lines 8-13). Hence, we are satisfied that one of ordinary skill
in the art would not have found it necessary to remove the
intermediate product aminoalkanoate from the organic polar
solvent, i.e., appellants' polar organic compound (NMP). While
appellants stress that Senga's employment of the solvent NMP "in
both the process of producing alkali metal aminoalkanoate and in
the subsequent polymerization process does not indicate that the
alkali metal aminoalkanoate would remain in solution as a
feedstock of the polymerization process" (sentence bridging
pages 12 and 13 of principal brief), appellants' claims do not
require that the aminoalkanoate remain in solution, i.e., the
claims specify that the aminoalkanoate solid is not isolated
from the solution. Moreover, we find that Senga's use of the
same solvent in both processes is evidence of the obviousness of
not isolating the aminoalkanoate.
As for the recitations in claims 50 and 72 regarding the
low contamination levels of iron, chromium and nickel in the PPS
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