Appeal 2007-1396
Application 10/375,235
Lintner, 458 F.2d 1013, 1015-16, 173 USPQ 560, 562-63 (CCPA 1972); see
also In re O’Farrell, 853 F.2d 894, 903-04, 7 USPQ2d 1673, 1680-81 (Fed.
Cir. 1988) (“For obviousness under § 103, all that is required is a reasonable
expectation of success.” (citations omitted)).
We are not persuaded Appellants’ contentions successfully rebut the
prima facie case in each ground of rejection. We agree with the Examiner
that one of ordinary skill in the art would have combined the references
directed to compositions containing the same and similar ingredients for the
same purpose of bleaching fabrics to take advantage of the properties taught
therein for the “air mode” catalysts of Hermant and Perkins, and Baeck’s
lipoxidase enzymes in treating the same stains from the same sources, even
if that is not Appellants’ purpose in combining the ingredients in such a
composition. See In re Kronig, 539 F.2d 1300, 1304, 190 USPQ 425, 428,
(CCPA 1976) (the reference provides “ample motivation to add water to
increase product yields, and we do not view the rejection as deficient merely
because appellants allege a different advantage resulting from the addition of
water. Obviousness under 35 USC 103 does not require absolute
predictability, . . . and it is sufficient here that [the reference] clearly
[suggests] doing what appellants have done” (citations omitted)); see also In
re Kemps, 97 F.3d 1427, 1429-30, 40 USPQ2d 1309, 1311 (Fed. Cir, 1996),
citing In re Dillon, 919 F.2d 688, 693, 16 USPQ2d 1897, 1901 (Fed. Cir.
1990) (en banc). Indeed, such disclosure in the references would not have
discouraged one of ordinary skill in this art from combining the same
thereby obtaining the claimed compositions. See, e.g., Kahn, 441 F.3d at
985-89, 78 USPQ2d at 1334-38 (“A reference may be said to teach away
when a person of ordinary skill, upon reading the reference, would be
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