Appeal 2007-0072
Application 09/945,861
knowledge in the arts that oligomerization and polymerization of ethylene
can be simultaneously performed. Indeed, this person would have found
Brookhart’s diimine complex catalysts form alpha-olefin oligomers which
Sugimura employs as starting materials for forming polyolefins with diimine
complex catalyst containing olefin polymerization catalyst compositions.
We appreciate the structural differences between the diimine complex
catalysts of Sugimura and Brookhart argued by Appellants. Nonetheless, we
are of the opinion there is sufficient structural similarity between these
catalysts that the combined teachings of the references would have
reasonably suggested to one of ordinary skill in this art that Brookhart’s
diimine complex catalysts would be compatible with the catalyst ingredients
of Sugimura’s diimine complex catalyst containing catalyst compositions.
Thus, this person would have incorporated Brookhart’s compound into
Sugimura’s composition in the reasonable expectation of forming in situ the
alpha-olefin starting materials for Sugimura’s polymerization processes to
obtain the polyolefin compositions taught by Sugimura.
Therefore, one of ordinary skill in this art routinely following the
combined teachings of Sugimura and Brookhart would have reasonably
arrived at the claimed polymerization catalyst components encompassed by
claim 1, as we interpreted this claim above, without recourse to Appellants’
Specification. See, e.g., KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 127 S. Ct. 1727,
1739-40, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1395-96 (2007) (a patent claiming a
combination of elements known in the prior art is obvious if the
improvement is no more than the predictable use of the prior art elements
according to their established functions); In re Kahn, 441 F.3d 977, 985-88,
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