Appeal 2006-2185
Application 10/248,892
Examiner seemingly agree that neither Hawkins I or II expressly describe
the claimed temperature condition proviso with respect to the dissolution of
urea in the reaction mixture. See the Briefs and the Answer in their entirety,
and the applied references as referred to therein.
Concerning this argued limitation of the claimed process, the
Examiner notes Taylor teaches/suggests maintaining a reactant mixture,
including urea, formaldehyde and basic pH additive, at a temperature that is
preferably below 60 degrees Centigrade during charging of the reactants and
before raising the temperature to make triazone. See the Answer at pages 4
and 5 and Taylor at col. 4, ll. 6-23. Moreover, the Examiner refers to Graves
for a teaching to heat a reaction mixture including urea and formalin to 45
degrees Centigrade to dissolve urea therein prior to heating the reaction
mixture further with ammonia addition to form a triazone-containing
solution. Based on the combined teachings of those references, the
Examiner has reasonably determined that that the process of representative
claim 1, including the step of maintaining the reaction mixture at a
temperature between about 40 degrees Celsius to about 55 degrees Celsius to
dissolve the urea reactant, would have been prima facie obvious to one of
ordinary skill in the art based on the applied references’ teachings. In this
regard, we note that Hawkins ‘005 teaches that the reactants, including urea ,
are mixed in an aqueous solution and that the urea can be added in solid
form. See Hawkins ‘005 at col. 6, ll. 39-64. Also, see, e.g., Hawkins ‘510 at
col. 2, l. 13 through col. 4, l. 3 and Table 10 for a similar disclosure. Thus,
one of ordinary skill in the art would have been led to select a suitable
temperature for the aqueous reaction mixture to dissolve any solid urea that
is added. In particular, Taylor and Graves evidence that the selection of a
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