Appeal No. 2006-2030
Application No. 10/101,020
ConAgra Foods,”Wesson” (2004) found at
www.conagrafoods.com/brands/wesson.jsp
Claims 1-7, all of the appealed claims, stand rejected
under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being obvious in view of
Thompson.
Based upon the record before us, we find that the
examiner has failed to establish a prima facie case of
obviousness with respect to the claims on appeal.
Accordingly, we shall reverse the rejection at issue.
The basis of our decision is as follows:
We agree with the examiner that Thompson does, in
general, suggest combining either non-hydrogenated
vegetable oil (NHVO) or partially hydrogenated vegetable
oil (PHVO) with waste or virgin petroleum oils, and using
the blend as a fuel. In this regard, Thompson refers to
PHVO no less than three times as an alternative to NHVO
(Abstract; page 1, para. 3.2; page 2, para. 5.1).
While appellants contend that the examiner has
misconstrued the Thompson references to PHVO, we find the
opposite to be true. That is, in our opinion, appellants
appear to have misconstrued Thompson as suggesting that any
references to hydrogenated vegetable oil as an inadequate
fuel extender apply, by implication, to PHVO as well. We
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