Ex Parte Chamberlain et al

Patent Trials and Appeals BoardJan 29, 2019

14210928 - (D) (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. Â§ 134(a) from the Examiner's rejection of claims 1-11 and 20. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. Â§ 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. Â§ 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 3 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. Â§ 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 4