Ex Parte Arbab et al

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

May 18, 2016

12649518 (P.T.A.B. May. 18, 2016)

UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE
12/649,518
24959 7590
PPG Industries, Inc,
IP Law Group
One PPG Place
39th Floor
Pittsburgh, PA 15272
12/30/2009
05/18/2016
FIRST NAMED INVENTOR
Mehran Arbab
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www .uspto.gov
ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
064066Pl 5672
EXAMINER
SZEWCZYK, CYNTHIA
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
1741
MAILDATE DELIVERY MODE
05/18/2016 PAPER
Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte MEHRAN ARBAB and SONGWEI LU
Appeal2014-009192
Application 12/649 ,518
Technology Center 1700
Before CHUNG K. PAK, JEFFREY T. SMITH, and
WESLEY B. DERRICK, Administrative Patent Judges.
SMITH, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
This is an appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from a final rejection of
claims 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, and 12. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Appellants' invention is generally directed to a method of making
colored glass that involves melting glass batch materials in a furnace to form
a glass melt, transporting the glass melt into a float glass chamber having a
flame spray device, where the glass melt forms a float glass ribbon,
supplying coloring materials to the flame spray device to form a spray
containing coloring particles, and directing the spray onto the float glass
ribbon to diffuse the coating particles into the surface of the float glass
Appeal2014-009192
Application 12/649,518
ribbon, forming a glass sheet of a desired color. App. Br. 2-3. Claim l
illustrates the subject matter on appeal and is reproduced below:
1. A method of making colored glass in a float glass
process, comprising the steps of:
melting glass batch materials in a furnace to form a glass
melt;
transporting the glass melt into a float glass chamber
having a flame spray device, the glass melt forming a float
glass ribbon;
supplying coating materials to the flame spray device to
form a spray containing coating particles; and
directing the spray onto the float glass ribbon to diffuse
the coating particles into the surface of the float glass ribbon to
form a resultant glass sheet of a desired color,
wherein said coating particles comprise metal oxide
nanoparticles comprising iron and at least one of cobalt and
manganese, and wherein the desired color is neutral gray.
App. Br. 9, Claims Appendix.
Appellants (see App. Br., generally) request review of the following
rejections from the Examiner's Final Office Action entered November 5,
2013:
Claims 1, 4, 7, 9, 10, and 12 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable
over Donley (U.S. 4, 170,460, issued October 9, 1979), Tikkanen (WO
01/28941 Al, published April 26, 2001), and Grego et al. (U.S. 3,775,154,
issued November 27, 1973).
Claim 5 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over the disclosure
of Donley, Tikkanen, Grego, and Plumat (U.S. 3,887,348 issued, June 3,
1975).
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Appeal2014-009192
Application 12/649,518
OPil~ION
After review of the respective positions provided by Appellants and
the Examiner, we REVERSE the Examiner's rejections of claims 1, 4, 5, 7,
9, 10, and 12 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a). We add the discussion below
primarily for emphasis and completeness.
Claim 11 requires a method of making colored glass, which involves
directing a flame spray containing coating particles onto a float glass ribbon
to diffuse the coating particles into the surface of the float glass ribbon, and
requires the coating particles to comprise metal oxide nanoparticles
comprising iron and at least one of cobalt and manganese.
Donley discloses a method of making colored glass articles that
includes two distinct steps. Donley col. 2, 11. 36-51; col. 5, 11. 8-20. The
first step involves coating the top surface of a glass melt floating on molten
tin in a float chamber with a pure metal or with a metal alloy, which
migrates into the surface of the glass. Donley col. 5, 11. 8-14. Donley
discloses that suitable pure metals for use in this first step include gold,
silver, copper, nickel, platinum, or palladium, and suitable metal alloys
include an alloy of tin, lead, or bismuth with any one or a combination of the
pure metals. Donley col. 2, 11. 36-39; col. 3, 11. 29-33.
1 For the purposes of this appeal, we select claim 1, the broadest claim on
appeal, as representative, and decide the propriety of the rejections under 35
U.S.C. § 103(a) based on this claim alone.
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Appeal2014-009192
Application 12/649,518
Donley discloses that the second step of the process occurs after the
treated glass has been removed from the float chamber, and involves
contacting the metal-modified surface of the glass with a coating
composition comprising iron oxide and chromium oxide, or contacting the
metal-modified surface with a composition that pyrolyzes or otherwise
reacts to form a metal oxide coating on the glass, such as compositions
containing acetylacetonates of cobalt, iron, and chromium. Donley col. 5, 11.
15-19; col. 3, 11. 39--43, 60-66; col. 4, 11. 6-9. The Examiner acknowledges
that Donley "is silent [as] to using a flame spray device in the float chamber
to apply the coating," and determines that it would have been obvious to one
of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to substitute the flame
spray coating method disclosed in Tikkanen "into the process of Donley"
because Tikkanen's method allows a wide variety of colored glass coatings
to be easily produced. Final Act. 2-3. Thus, the Examiner apparently
proposes modifying the first step of Donley's process by using Tikkanen's
flame spray method to apply the metal or metal alloy to the glass melt in the
float glass chamber.
However, Donley does not disclose applying iron oxide and cobalt
oxide or manganese oxide to a float glass ribbon in a float glass chamber,
and instead discloses applying pure gold, silver, copper, nickel, platinum, or
palladium, or an alloy of tin, lead, or bismuth with any one or a combination
of the pure metals, to float glass. Donley col. 2, 11. 36-39; col. 3, 11. 29-33;
col. 5, 11. 8-14. Tikkanen also does not disclose applying iron oxide and
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Appeal2014-009192
Application 12/649,518
cobalt oxide or manganese oxide to glass via flame spraying, but instead
discloses application of colloidal gold, silver, and copper to glass using
flame spray. Tikkanen col. 5, 11. 19--27; col. 4, 11. 13-17 and 28-34.
Therefore, assuming that one of ordinary skill in the art would have
been led to modify the first step of Donley's process to use Tikkanen's flame
spray method as the Examiner apparently proposes, the resultant
combination would not have involved application of iron oxide and cobalt
oxide or manganese oxide to a float glass ribbon in a float glass chamber, as
recited in claim 1. Although the Examiner asserts that Donley "teaches that
the coating may comprise iron oxide with cobalt oxide" (Final Act. 3), the
disclosure referred to by the Examiner relates to the second step of Donley's
process in which a coating is applied over surface-modified glass after it has
been removed/ram the float chamber. Donley col. 5, 11. 8-20; col. 3, 11. 39--
43 and 60-66; col. 4, 11. 6-9. Neither Donley nor Tikkanen teaches or would
have suggested applying iron oxide and cobalt oxide to the surface of a float
glass ribbon, and the Examiner does not articulate an apparent reason or
suggestion that reasonably would have prompted one of ordinary skill in the
art to do so.
To the extent that the Examiner proposes modifying Donley's method
by substituting the second step of Donley's process with Tikkanen's flame
spray method, the resultant modified process would involve applying an iron
oxide and chromium oxide coating, or applying a composition that pyrolyzes
or reacts to form a metal oxide coating, such as acetylacetonates of cobalt,
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Appeal2014-009192
Application 12/649,518
iron, and chromium, to surface-modified glass via flame spray after it has
been removed from a float glass chamber, and would not involve spraying
nanoparticles comprising iron oxide and cobalt oxide or manganese oxide
onto a float glass ribbon, as recited in claim 1.
Therefore, even if the disclosures of the applied prior art relied upon
by the Examiner were combined in the above manner, the combination
would not have suggested the method recited in claim 1.
Accordingly, on this record, we concur with Appellants that the
Examiner's evidence and explanation are insufficient to establish a prima
facie case of obviousness regarding the subject matter recited in claims 1, 4,
5, 7, 9, 10, and 12, and we therefore do not sustain the rejection of these
claims under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a).
CONCLUSION
In view of the reasons set forth above, we reverse the Examiner's
§ 103(a) rejections of claims 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, and 12.
REVERSED
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