Appeal 2007-2235
Application 10/138,617
1396 (2007). The Court advised that “[a] person of ordinary skill is . . . a
person of ordinary creativity, not an automaton.” Id. at 1742, 82 USPQ2d at
1397.
In the instant case, Hudgins discloses that “aerobic biodegradation
processes, such as municipal waste composting, have demonstrated for years
that the biodegradable mass of MSW [municipal solid waste] can be
stabilized in a significantly shorter time than that required under anaerobic
conditions by adding air and moisture to the waste mass” (Hudgins, col. 3, ll.
31-35). Hudgins discloses that
aerobic biodegradation of MSW is achieved in-situ using the
present invention whereby the landfill itself serves as a large
bioreactor. By maintaining an aerobic environment,
indigenous, facultative bacteria consume oxygen and convert
the biodegradable mass of MSW to mostly carbon dioxide and
water, with a stabilized humus remaining.
(Id. at col. 3, ll. 41-46.)
Apel discloses that nitrogen oxides in polluted gases can be reduced to
nitrogen gas by a biofilter comprised of “a compost selected from organic
matter such as wood, leaves, grass clippings, or the like, or mixtures thereof.
The bed medium can further contain peat, clay, soil, wood chips, wood bark,
or the like, or mixtures thereof” (Apel, col. 2, l. 64 through col. 3, l. 1).
Thus, one of ordinary skill apprised by Hudgins that landfills contain
significant amounts of aerobically biodegradable organic compost material,
would have inferred from Apel that introducing nitrogen oxides into
Hudgins’ aerobically active landfill would result in their reduction to
nitrogen. We therefore agree with the Examiner that, in view of Hudgins
and Apel, one of ordinary skill would have considered it obvious to inject
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