Appeal 2006-2490
Application 10/238,791
invention (Final Office Action dated Apr. 29, 2005, page 1). We have
jurisdiction pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 134.
According to Appellants, the invention is directed to a gel formed
during the process described in the parent application, now U.S. Patent No.
5,779,761, and a solid formed from the gel (Br. 2). Independent claim 95
and dependent claim 107 are illustrative of the invention and are reproduced
below:
95. A gel of a powder elemental material or a powder alloy
thereof and a halide salt and liquid alkali metal or liquid alkaline earth
metal or mixtures thereof produced by the method of submerging a
halide vapor of the elemental material or mixtures of halide vapors
into a flowing liquid alkali metal or liquid alkaline earth metal or
mixtures thereof to produce powder elemental material or a powder
alloy thereof and a halide salt in the presence of excess liquid alkali
metal or liquid alkaline earth metal or mixtures thereof and separating
excess liquid metal to form the gel.
107. The gel of claim 95 cooled to a solid.
Claims 95-128 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112, first paragraph,
as failing to comply with the written description requirement (Answer 3).
This is the only rejection in this appeal (Br. 2).1
Based on the totality of the record, including due consideration of
Appellants’ arguments and the Jacobsen Declaration (Exhibit A attached to
the Brief), we AFFIRM the rejection on appeal essentially for the reasons
stated in the Answer, as well as those reasons set forth below.
1 We note similar rejections and issues have been the subject of Appeal No. 2005-1905
(Application No. 10/125,988) and Appeal No. 2006-0902 (Application No. 10/125,942),
with Decisions mailed in these Appeals on Oct. 21, 2005, and June 23, 2006,
respectively. We also note an appeal in related Application No. 10/238,297, and we have
considered abandoned Application No. 08/283,358 (filed Aug. 1, 1994) and related U.S.
Patent Nos. 5,779,761; 5,958,106; and 6,409,797.
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007