Appeal 2007-3684
Application 10/448,794
The prior art cited by the Examiner establishes that a person of
ordinary skill in the art would have reasonably expected that in the
formation of polyesters, enzyme catalysts would have been suitable for
replacing cationic ring opening catalysts for lactone compounds. A person
of ordinary skill in the art would have been led to replace the catalysts
described in Yu with the enzyme catalysts described by Kobayashi to obtain
the advantages disclose therein.
Appellants’ contention that the claimed invention is not obvious
because Yu teaches away from the use of an enzyme catalyst is not
supported on the present record. Appellants have not identified a specific
portion of the Yu reference that states that enzyme catalysts cannot be used.
As stated above, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been
motivated to utilize an enzyme catalyst in the ring opening polymerization of
Yu to obtain the advantages described by Kobayashi.
In conclusion, based on the foregoing and the reasons well stated by
the Examiner, the Examiner’s decision rejecting the appealed claims 1 to 7,
17, 23, 24, 27 to 40, 52 to 59 and 63 to 72 is affirmed.
5
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013