Ex Parte Chamberlain et al

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Jan 29, 2019

14210928 (P.T.A.B. Jan. 29, 2019)

UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE
14/210,928 03/14/2014
131120 7590 01/29/2019
EGL/Rolls-Royce Corporation
Capital Center South Tower- Suite 1100
201 N. Illinois Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204
FIRST NAMED INVENTOR
Adam L. Chamberlain
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.
15448-338/RCAl 1016-US 3735
EXAMINER
GOLDEN, CHINESSA T
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
1788
MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE
01/29/2019 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 ADAM L. CHAMBERLAIN, ANDREW J. LAZUR,
and ROBERT J. SHINA VSKI
Appeal 2018-003646
Application 14/210,928
Technology Center 1700
Before TERRY J. OWENS, N. WHITNEY WILSON, and
SHELDON M. McGEE, Administrative Patent Judges.
OWENS, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
The Appellant (Rolls-Royce Corporation) appeals under
35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Examiner's rejection of claims 1-11 and 20.
We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b ).
The Invention
The claims are to a ceramic matrix composite and an article made of
the composite. Claim 1 is illustrative:
1. A ceramic matrix composite comprising:
a matrix; and
a fiber preform embedded within the matrix;
Appeal 2018-003646
Application 14/210,928
wherein the matrix includes a rigidization layer
comprising silicon carbide on the fiber preform, an infiltration
layer on the rigidization layer, and a barrier layer sandwiched
between the rigidization layer and the infiltration layer, the
barrier layer comprising silicon nitro-carbide or silicon nitride.
Lamouroux
Sherwood
Gray
Lee
The References
us 6,068,930
US 2006/0004169 Al
US 2006/0147622 Al
US 2007/0128421 Al
The Rejections
May 30, 2000
Jan. 5,2006
July 6, 2006
June 7, 2007
The claims stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § I03(a) as follows:
claims 1, 2, 4--9, and 20 over Lamouroux in view of Sherwood; claims 3
and 10 over Lamouroux in view of Sherwood and Gray; and claim 11 over
Lamouroux in view of Sherwood, Gray, and Lee.
OPINION
We reverse the rejections. We need address only the independent
claims (1 and 20). Those claims require a ceramic matrix composite
including a barrier layer comprising silicon nitrocarbide or silicon nitride.
Lamouroux makes a ceramic matrix composite whose matrix is
formed by chemical vapor infiltrating reinforcing fibers with layers of
relatively flexible material alternating with layers of relatively rigid ceramic
material (col. 2, 11. 27-32). "[T]he relatively flexible layers are made of one
or more materials presenting an anisotropic character and an ability to
deform elasticity in shear transversely relative to the layers" ( col. 3, 11. 11-
14) to deflect cracks reaching those layers ( col. 2, 11. 30-31 ). The exemplary
materials of which the relatively flexible layers can be made are "pyrolytic
carbon, in particular pyrolytic carbon of the rough laminar type, boron
2
Appeal 2018-003646
Application 14/210,928
nitride, boron-doped carbon, and other materials having equivalent
properties and capable of being built up by chemical vapor infiltration"
(col. 3, 11. 14--19).
Sherwood makes a ceramic matrix composite by coating fibers with a
ceramic-forming polymer and curing the polymer to form a ceramic
composite, and increasing the density of the ceramic composite by
infiltrating the coated fibers with a ceramic-forming polymer which can be a
silicon nitrocarbide-forming polymer to form a matrix between the coated
fibers, and proceeding through one or more curing and pyrolysis cycles
(i1i136, 51 ). "[T]he fibers may be a non-oxide fiber chosen from the group
comprising: silicon carbide, near-silicon carbide, silicon borocarbide, silicon
carbonitride, or silicon nitrocarbide (SiNC) fibers" (i-f 38), commercial
examples of which include "Sylramic treated to form a boron-nitride (BN)
interface" (id.).
The Examiner finds that Sherwood's disclosure that the fibers can be
silicon nitrocarbide or Sylramic TM treated to form a boron nitride interface
"teaches that the silicone [sic] nitro-carbide and boron-nitride are
functionally equivalent" (Ans. 16), so "the silicon nitro-carbide of Sherwood
meets the disclosed other material having equivalent properties of
Lamouroux [(col. 3, 11. 11-19)]" (id.). The Examiner concludes that "[i]t
would have been obvious to a person of the ordinary skill in the art at the
time of the invention to incorporate the silicon nitrocarbide of Sherwood into
the barrier layer of Lamouroux in order to increase the density of the
composite (page 6, paragraph [0051 ])" (Ans. 4).
The Examiner does not establish that Sherwood's disclosure of a
silicon nitrocarbide fiber and a boron nitride interface on a Sylramic TM fiber
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Appeal 2018-003646
Application 14/210,928
would have indicated to one of ordinary skill in the art that silicon
nitrocarbide is functionally equivalent to boron nitride or has properties
equivalent to those of boron nitride.
Thus, the Examiner has not set forth a factual basis sufficient to
support a conclusion of obviousness of the Appellant's claimed invention.
See In re Warner, 379 F .2d 1011, 1017 (CCP A 1967) ("A rejection based on
section 103 clearly must rest on a factual basis, and these facts must be
interpreted without hindsight reconstruction of the invention from the prior
art."). Accordingly, we reverse the rejections.
DECISION
The rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) of claims 1, 2, 4--9, and 20
over Lamouroux in view of Sherwood; claims 3 and 10 over Lamouroux in
view of Sherwood and Gray; and claim 11 over Lamouroux in view of
Sherwood, Gray, and Lee are reversed.
The Examiner's decision is reversed.
REVERSED
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