Appeal 2007-0128
Reexamination Control 90/006,208
Patent 5,573,648
Examiner cites Grot, Uchida and Vanderborgh as teaching the use of electrodes
having Atwood=s claimed combination of proton conducting material and electron
conducting materials. (Id.). The Examiner concludes that one of ordinary skill in
the art would have employed the electrodes of Grot and Uchida in Dempsey=s gas
sensor because Grot and Uchida teach the use of their electrodes in gas sensors and
because Grot and Uchida=s electrodes provide Dempsey=s gas sensor with
improved
electrical properties. (Id. at 5). Further, the Examiner states that Vanderborgh’s
teaches that its electrode provides improved properties and that the substitution of
one known electrode composition for another, when the results are not unexpected,
would have required only routine skill in the art. (Id.). Atwood disagrees.
Atwood=s arguments are addressed below.
i. Analogous Art
Atwood argues that Grot, Uchida and Vanderborgh represent non-analogous
art. (Appeal Br., p. 23). Atwood states that its claimed invention is a gas
sensor.
Atwood argues that:
The fuel cell citations [Grot and Uchida] are not analogous to the
>648 Patent because they are neither in the field of ambient
atmosphere gas sensors nor reasonably pertinent to the problem
addressed by the >648 Patent, are inoperative in an ambient
24
Page: Previous 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013