Citations
- 48 F.2d 933
Full opinion text
LENROOT, Associate Judge.
This is an appeal from a decision of the Board of Appeals of the United States Patent Office affirming the rejection by the examiner of claims 17 and 18 of appellants’ application.
Said claims read as follows:
“17. A rust-proofing compound, comprising a granular or powdery substance containing high acid ortho-phosphates of iron.
“18. A rust-proofing compound, comprising a granular or powdery substance containing high, acid phosphates of iron and manganese.”
The references are:
Emig, 1,263,395, April 23, 1918.
Gravell, 1,428,084, September 5, 1912.
The application relates to a method of making a rust-proofing composition and includes both process and product claims. Certain of the process claims were allowed, but the product claims, being those above quoted, were rejected. The specification discloses that the composition is used by dissolving it in water. The solution is then boiled and articles having iron surfaces are immersed in it while the solution is boiling.
If claim 17 is patentable, it is because it constitutes invention to produce high acid ortho-phosphates of iron in a granular or powdery form.
This claim was rejected upon the Emig reference. In appellants’ specification it is stated: “ * * * When strong phosphoric acid contacts iron, high acids salts are formed. Weaker acid, or the acid salts, in contact with iron form the lower acid and insoluble salts.”
The Solicitor for the Patent Office in his brief contends that: “Claim 17 enumerates only one element — a well-known chemical product resulting from treating iron- with phosphoric acid — in a granular or powdery form. It is submitted to be uninventive to powder any substance.”
This contention would appear to be well founded. Appellants, in their brief, make the following statement:
“Ordinary commercial phosphoric acid has the formula HsPOt. It combines readily with iron in at least three Ways indicated in the following equations:
“Fe+2H3P0é=Fe(H2P0í)2+2H. The product of this reaction is commonly known as dihydrogen ferrous phosphate.
“2Fe+2H?.PO