Te Grotenhuis v. Yaeger, Patent Appeal No. 6636.

• Decision Date: 09 June 1961
• Docket Number: Patent Appeal No. 6636.
• Citation: 290 F.2d 951
• Parties: Theodore A. TE GROTENHUIS, Appellant, v. Luther L. YAEGER, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (CCPA)

290 F.2d 951 (1961)

Theodore A. TE GROTENHUIS, Appellant, v. Luther L. YAEGER, Appellee.

Patent Appeal No. 6636.

United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.

June 9, 1961.

Theodore A. TeGrotenhuis, Cleveland, Ohio, pro se.

Vincent A. Greene, Cleveland, Ohio (Frank S. Greene, McCoy, Greene & Te-Grotenhuis, Cleveland, Ohio, George R. Jones, and Beale & Jones, Washington, D. C., of counsel), for appellant.

Foster York, Chicago, Ill. (John M. Diehl, Madison, Wis., Zabel, Baker, York, Jones & Dithmar, Chicago, Ill., of counsel), for appellee.

Before WORLEY, Chief Judge, and RICH, MARTIN, and SMITH, Associate Judges, and Judge WILLIAM H. KIRKPATRICK.^*

MARTIN, Judge.

This is an appeal by TeGrotenhuis from a decision of the Board of Patent Interferences of the United States Patent Office awarding priority of invention of the subject matter in eight of the ten counts in interference No. 88,771 to Yaeger, the senior party. Priority as to the other two counts, 8 and 9, was awarded to TeGrotenhuis. No cross appeal has been taken by Yaeger as to the latter two counts.

U. S. Patent No. 2,742,378 was issued to TeGrotenhuis on April 17, 1956 on application serial No. 302,415, filed August 2, 1952. This application was a continuation-in-part of two applications, serial No. 243,737, filed August 25, 1951, now abandoned, and serial No. 585,824, filed March 30, 1945, now Patent No. 2,751,369.

On April 9, 1956, Yaeger filed application serial No. 576,816 as a continuation of application serial No. 273,770, filed February 27, 1952. The latter application was a continuation-in-part of Yaeger's application serial No. 170,465, filed June 26, 1950.

On August 20, 1956, Yaeger added by amendment to his application serial No. 576,816 ten claims of the TeGrotenhuis patent No. 2,742,378. An interference was declared between Yaeger and TeGrotenhuis with these ten claims as the counts. Yaeger is the senior party on the basis of his February 27, 1952 application date.

The invention defined in the counts relates to certain solid "composite articles" comprising textile fibers and a polymeric resin, and to a method of making the articles. The articles are said to possess superior cohesive properties because an organosilicon compound is used as a sort of "molecular cement" between fibers and resin. In other words, each silicon compound molecule is attached by chemical bonds both to a fiber and to the resin which surrounds it. In making the articles, it is recognized that a plurality of hydroxyl groups is normally present on the surface of a textile fiber. Certain "hydroxyl-reactive" organosilicon compounds with one or more carbon-to-carbon double bonds, for example, vinyl silicon trichloride, are allowed to react with the fibers whereby the fiber hydroxyl groups, fiber-OH, are transformed to fiber siloxane groups, fiber-O-$i- , in which at least one free bond to each silicon atom is connected to an organic group with carbon-to-carbon unsaturation These modified fibers are then contacted with an olefinically unsaturated liquid, for example, styrene, and the liquid is polymerized to the solid state. The unsaturated groups attached to the modified fibers interpolymerize with the liquid. Thus a plurality of chains comprising a silicon atom and two or more carbon atoms bind fibers and surrounding resin together in the finished composite article.

The following counts are representative:

"1. A method of preparing composite articles which comprises bonding vinyl-silicon-oxide groups (CH2=CH--O-) directly to the surface of textile fibres having hydroxyl groups on the surface by contacting said fibres with a hydroxyl-reactive vinyl silicon compound having a vinyl group attached directly to silicon, thereafter contacting the said fibres with a liquid polymerizable to the solid state and comprising a styrene and polymerizing said liquid to the solid state in contact with the surface of said fibres, whereby said vinyl groups are subject to interpolymerization with polymerizable constituents of said liquid to chemically bond the in situ formed solid polymer to the surface of said textile fibres through the silicon-oxide linkage of said vinyl silicon oxide groups.

"2. A method of making fibre reinforced articles which comprises wetting, with a polymerizable olefinically-unsaturated liquid capable of being solidified to the rigid state by polymerization, textile fibres, which normally have hydroxyl groups on their surface but which are modified by having bonded to the surface thereof a vinyl siloxane coupling compound having a carbon of an olefinic group thereof attached directly to a silicon atom, said surface of said fibres having said coupling compound thereon being different from the body of said fibres and forming an interface for inter-polymerization with unsaturated groups of an olefinically-unsaturated monomeric liquid polymerizable to the solid state by means of said olefinically-unsaturated groups, and maintaining said olefinically-unsaturated liquid in contact with said fibres until it has solidified to the solid nonflowable state, the vinyl group of said vinyl siloxane coupling compound being attached through a siloxane group to said fibres, whereby said olefinic groups on the surface of said fibres are available for interaction with the monomer when it is polymerized to the solid state."

"7. A composite article comprising an in situ polymerized solid polymer of a liquid comprising a polymerizable olefinic compound selected from the group consisting of diolefinic compounds having a chain of less than 7 aliphatic carbon atoms and polymerizable mono-olefinic compounds, textile fibres in said polymer for reinforcing the same and an interfacial coupling compound bonded to said textile fibres and chemically combined with said solid polymer, said interfacial compound being different both from the body of said fibres and the mass of said solid polymer, said interfacial compound comprising the interpolymerization product from the interpolymerization of vinyl siloxane groups on the surfaces of said fibres and of said olefinic compound, said vinyl groups being attached directly to silicon and being bonded to said fibres through silicon-oxygen linkages."

"10. A liquid-permeable mass of substantially dry flexible textile fibres suitable for soaking up a polymerizable liquid, said fibres being of a material which normally carries hydroxyl groups on the surface thereof, the surfaces of said fibres being modified by having groups of a vinyl siloxane attached thereto for subsequent reaction with said polymerizable liquid during the polymerization thereof, the said vinyl groups being attached through said siloxane groups to said surface, the fibres having said vinyl groups attached thereto being wettable by said polymerizable liquid, whereby said mass is capable of soaking up polymerization liquid to bond said fibres together upon the polymerization thereof and whereby a molecular bond between the surface of the fibres and the resultant polymer may be had by interaction of said vinyl groups and said polymerizable liquid during said polymerization."

No testimony was taken by either party. Yaeger alleged in his preliminary statement a reduction to practice of the invention on March 24, 1950. TeGrotenhuis has stipulated that this allegation is true and that Yaeger's application serial No. 170,465, now abandoned, discloses the invention of the counts. TeGrotenhuis has alleged a constructive reduction to practice on March 30, 1945, the filing date of his parent application serial No. 585,824.

The sole issue before this court is whether TeGrotenhuis is entitled to the benefit of the March 30, 1945 filing date of his parent application serial No. 585,824 for the purpose of priority judgment as to each count in issue. The same issue as to all the counts was before the board and it decided that TeGrotenhuis was not entitled to the benefit of that date except as to counts 8 and 9. Accordingly, the board awarded priority as to these counts to TeGrotenhuis and priority as to the other eight counts, those in issue here, to Yaeger.

In reaching its conclusion, the board considered that the composite articles and the method of making them involve the broad concept of chemically bonding together sequentially three components. The board stated:

"Component one is a fabric material defined usually in the counts as `textile fibers having hydroxyl groups on the surface\' but otherwise in equivalent wording. This is descriptive of most fabrics, even glass fabric or fibers * * *. * * * There is no dispute about component one.

"There is also no dispute about component three defined in the counts in varying degrees of breadth from `comprising a styrene\' * * * to merely `a polymerizable liquid\' in count 10. As to component three all of the counts read on styrene which is well known to be polymerizable and with some compounds to be copolymerizable. * * *"

The board found that the "controversy concerns component two" which in the process is the organosilicon compound or "molecular cement" which links together fibers and resin, first by attaching itself to the fibers through the fiber-OH groups and later by interpolymerizing with the styrene as the latter forms the resin in situ. Component two is recited in the counts either as a separate reactant or as the group which is attached to the fibers or in both ways. For example, in count 1, the reactant is "a hydroxyl-reactive vinyl silicon compound having a vinyl group attached directly to silicon" and the fiber groups are "vinyl-siliconoxide groups (CH2=CH-Si-O-)." In count 3, the reactant is not recited and the fiber groups are "vinyl groups with a carbon atom of the carbon-to-carbon double bond thereof chemically bonded to the surfaces thereof i. e., fiber surfaces directly through a silicon-oxygen linkage."

In order to understand this controversy, which is whether there is a sufficient disclosure of component two...