Henry Bluestone v. Louis Schmerling

265 F.2d 948, 46 C.C.P.A. 842
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedMay 15, 1959
DocketPatent Appeal 6402
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 265 F.2d 948 (Henry Bluestone v. Louis Schmerling) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Henry Bluestone v. Louis Schmerling, 265 F.2d 948, 46 C.C.P.A. 842 (ccpa 1959).

Opinion

WORLEY, Acting Chief Judge.

This is an appeal from the decision of the Board of Patent Interferences of the United States Patent Office awarding priority of invention of the single count of Interference No. 87,311 to the senior party, Louis Schmerling, appellee here.

Appellant, Bluestone, filed his application December 22, 1952. Sehmerling’s application No. 419,627, directly included in the interference, was filed March 29, 1954, but he was given the benefit of his copending application No. 100,756, filed June 22,1949, and was thus made the senior party. Bluestone, in his preliminary statement, alleged no date of invention as early as the filing date of the earlier application of Schmerling, and was accordingly ordered to show cause why judgment should not be entered against him. In response, Bluestone contended that neither Schmerling application contained a sufficient disclosure to support the subject matter of the count, nor a sufficient showing of utility of the compound produced by the process of the count. Each of those questions had been seasonably raised by Bluestone and de *949 cided adversely to him by the Primary Examiner.

The board agreed with the examiner and held that each of the Schmerling applications was sufficient to disclose both the claimed method and utility of the resulting compound. While the correctness of each of those holdings is challenged here, it is clear the later application contains everything pertinent to the invention in issue which is found in the earlier one, as well as some additional matter, and it does not appear to be denied by Bluestone that, if the earlier application contains a sufficient disclosure, the later one also does. In view of that fact, and of the further fact that Schmerling took no testimony and relies for priority solely on his earlier application, the disclosure of the later application need not be further considered. If the earlier application contains a sufficient disclosure to support the count, the decision of the board must be affirmed; otherwise it must be reversed. No question has been raised as to the sufficiency of the Blue-stone application, hence the disclosure of that application need not be specifically considered.

The count reads:

“The method which comprises reacting vinyl chloride with hexachloroeyclopentadiene in a Diels-Alder manner to form their equi-molar adduct.”

It will be seen that the count comprises three essential features; namely, (1) the use of the specified materials as ingredients, (2) reaction of the ingredients in a specified manner and, (3) the production of an equi-molar adduct, i. e. one in which the ingredients are present in amounts proportional to their molecular weights.

The earlier Schmerling application discloses the condensation reaction of hexachlorocyclopentadiene with any one of a wide variety of chloro-substituted olefins, and states that “The preferred chloro-olefin utilizable in the present condensation reaction on the basis of yield of product obtained therefrom and the relative ease of preparation is vinyl chloride.” We interpret that language as an unmistakable disclosure of the use of the materials recited by the count as reaction ingredients.

The only limitation in the count as to the nature of the reaction is that it takes place “in a Diels-Alder manner.” As to that manner, the “Concise Chemical and Technical Dictionary” (1947) Edited by H. Bennett and published by Chemical Publishing, Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y., contains the following definition:

“Diels-Alder synthesis (diene synthesis). Reaction between a compound containing a conjugated double bond and a compound containing an activated double bond, e. g. butadiene and maleic anhydride.”

As indicated by the definition, the distinguishing feature of the Diels-Alder synthesis does not reside in specific condition of reaction, but in the choice of the ingredients. Accordingly, we find the following statement in the board’s decision to be correct:

“The Diels-Alder concept was in the choice of certain type reactants for addition by conventional means. If the correct type reactants are chosen — the ensuing action is inherently a Diels-Alder reaction.”

That vinyl chloride and hexachloro-cyclopentadiene are reactants of the proper type is evident from the fact that the count calls for them as taking part in a Diels-Alder reaction, and from the further fact that vinyl chloride contains an activated double bond and hexachloro-cyclopentadiene a conjugated double bond. It follows that the condensation reaction of those materials, which is disclosed by Schmerling’s earlier application, would inherently be “in the Diels-Alder manner.”

With respect to the final requirement of the count, i. e., that the product of the reaction shall be the equi-molar adduct of the ingredients, it is noted that the application states that operable yields may be obtained by the use of an approximately equimolecular ratio of the re *950 actants, but that it is preferred to use a stoichiometric excess of the chloro-olefin component (vinyl chloride) which excess may be from 1.5 to 1 to about 10 to 1, for the reason, inter alia, that the hexachlorocyelopentadiene component will thus be consumed substantially to completion, while the excess of the chloro-olefin which remains after the reaction may be readily removed by distillation. It seems evident that if an excess of the chloro-olefin as low as 1.5 to 1 results in complete reaction of the pentadiene ingredient with a substantial residue of the chloro-olefin, a substantially equi-molar adduct will result. Moreover, it was stated by the board that

“Examples of the Diels-Alder reaction shown in organic chemistry texts typically show that there results an equi-molar adduct and accordingly such is assumed unless there is indication otherwise.”

We do not find where appellant questioned that statement or called for identification of the texts referred to, nor is the statement challenged in his reasons of appeal. Accordingly we accept it as correct, and agree with the board that an equi-molar adduct is inherent in the process disclosed by the earlier Schmerling application.

While Schmerling’s earlier application does not give a specific example of the use of vinyl chloride in a reaction, it does give an example of the reaction of hexaehlorocyclopentadiene with 1, 3-dichloro-propene, and states that such example is “indicative of typical representative compounds of the present process.” We agree with both Patent Office tribunals that that is a sufficient disclosure to enable one skilled in the art to carry out a similar reaction involving vinyl chloride.

Appellant asserts that mere’y bringing the specified reactants together by condensation does not inherently or inevitably cause them to react in a Diels-Alder manner. In support of that proposition he states the record shows that some of the olefins mentioned by Schmerling may react in a different manner with hexachlorocyclopentadiene and that in some cases care must be taken to avoid polymerization. However, there is nothing to show that such difficulties are encountered in reacting the specific materials recited by the count, or that any particular precautions are necessary to avoid them.

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Bluebook (online)
265 F.2d 948, 46 C.C.P.A. 842, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henry-bluestone-v-louis-schmerling-ccpa-1959.