Appeal 2007-2210
Application 10/711,154
and strongly adherent to the Y-TZP substrate (Specification [Para 17]).
The Specification also discloses that persons of ordinary skill in the art
would have recognized that a coating resulting from an IBAD process
creates a coating having high bulk density comprising very low open or
close porosity and preferably less than 1.0% total porosity (Specification
[Para 21]). Thus, in order to establish a prima facie case of unpatentability
the Examiner must present evidence that establishes the coating techniques
of the cited prior art produces a coating that has total porosity of less than
about 1.0 percent as required by independent claims 1 and 13. The
Examiner has failed to address the porosity of the coatings of the cited
references.
We also agree with the Appellant's description of the Schubert
reference (Br. 5). Schubert teaches converting the surface of Y-TZP
during densification by sintering in a powder bed of stabilizing oxides.
Schubert places the Y-TZP in a powder bed and heats it, thereby allowing
an oxide to diffuse into the original surface, thereby converting the original
surface of the Y-TZP compact into a stabilized phase as a function of the
amount of diffusion. (Schubert 158). It appears that the product produced
from Schubert is the starting point for the presently claimed invention.
The Examiner cited the Hida reference for equating alumina to the
oxides disclosed in Schubert. Thus, if a person of ordinary skill in the art
were to use alumina in place of the oxides described in Schubert, the result
would not be the presently claimed invention.
The Toibana reference does not address the differences in the
Schubert reference identified above.
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