Appeal No. 2007-0111
Reexamination 90/006,297
1 if not all, known Ti-halide/alkylaluminum complex catalysts classified as Ziegler-
2 Natta catalysts.1 Indeed, Giulio Natta, one of the named inventors, and Karl
3 Ziegler (Max Planck Institute for Carbon Research) were jointly awarded the 1963
4 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for “high molecular weight polymers with spatially
5 regular structures,” i.e., polyolefins having stereospecific structures such as
6 isotactic polypropylene based on the use of these catalysts. (Appeal brief filed
7 September 22, 2003, paper 17 at 3; Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and
8 Technology at 517.)
9 The polymers resulting from the claimed process are ubiquitous in human
10 civilization and are made into a wide variety of everyday products (e.g., grocery
11 bags). Total polyolefin production worldwide exceeded 50 million tons/year
12 according to the Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Technology, which is dated
13 2003.
14
15 Prior Board Decision of March 30, 2005 (Paper 26) in This Reexamination
16 This is the second time an appeal has been taken in this Director-ordered
17 reexamination. In the first appeal, we affirmed all six of the examiner’s rejections
18 based on the judicially created doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting.
1 See John C. Chadwick, Ziegler-Natta Catalysts, in 8 Encyclopedia of
Polymer Science and Technology 517-36 (2003)(copy attached).
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