Appeal 2006-2185
Application 10/248,892
temperature within the claimed range would have been recognized by one of
ordinary skill in the art as a suitable temperature for maintaining such a
reaction mixture for dissolving urea.
In light of the above, Appellants’ contention of a lack of suggestion
for the Examiner’s proposed modification of either Hawkins ‘005 or
Hawkins ‘510 is not found persuasive. Indeed, we note that Taylor not only
references the making of triazones for use as a fertilizer, but also refers to
the here applied U.S. Patent No.’s 4,554,005 and 4,778,510 (Hawkins ‘005
and ‘510). See col. 3, ll. 24-57 of Taylor. Consequently, Appellants’
argument that Taylor is not combinable with either of the applied Hawkins
references based on the additional binder formation steps therein is clearly
untenable. Given the above, Appellants’ position respecting the lack of
combinability of Graves with either Hawkins ‘005 or ‘510 based on the
ultimate glass binder binder formation taught therein is likewise
unpersuasive.
Appellants maintain that Hawkins’ 005 teaches away from the
Examiner’s proposed modification in that Hawkins ‘005 notes that it is
desired to avoid maintaining the reaction mixture in an non-reacted state for
a prolonged period of time. As to the specific question of "teaching away,"
our reviewing court in In re Gurley, 27 F.3d 551, 553, 31 USPQ2d 1130,
1131 (Fed. Cir. 1994) stated:
[a] reference may be said to teach away when a person of
ordinary skill, upon [examining] the reference, would be
discouraged from following the path set out in the reference, or
would be led in a direction divergent from the path that was
taken by the applicant.
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