Appeal 2007-0738
Application 11/109,274
(a) exposing a porous ceramic body comprised of ceramic grains
essentially chemically bound together to a source of boron, wherein the
source of boron is uniformly distributed within the porous ceramic body and
(b) heating the porous body in an oxygen containing atmosphere to a
temperature sufficient to form the porous ceramic body having increased
strength.
The Examiner relies upon the following reference in the rejection of
the appealed claims:
DiChiara, Jr. (DiChiara) US 6,919,103 B2 Jul. 19, 2005
Appellants' claimed invention is directed to a method of increasing the
strength of a porous ceramic body comprising exposing the body to a source
of boron so as to uniformly distribute boron within the porous ceramic body.
The porous body is heated after treatment with the boron. Examples of the
source of boron are boron carbide and boron nitride. Also, the porous body
can be exposed to the source of boron by impregnating a liquid having boron
dissolved therein into the ceramic body.
Appealed claims 1-9, 15, 20-24, and 29 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being anticipated by DiChiara. Claims 10-14, 16-19,
and 25-28 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable
over DiChiara.
Appellants present separate arguments for the following groups of
claims: (I) claims 3 and 4, (II) claim 15, (III) claim 7, (IV) claims 12 and 18,
(V) claims 14 and 27, and (VI) claim 28. Accordingly, claims 1, 2, 5, 6,
8-11, 13, 16, 17, 19-26, and 29 stand or fall together.
We have thoroughly reviewed each of Appellants' arguments for
patentability. However, we find that the Examiner's § 102 and § 103
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