In re Potts, Patent Appeal No. 5017.

• Decision Date: 27 June 1946
• Docket Number: Patent Appeal No. 5017.
• Parties: In re POTTS.
• Court: U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (CCPA)

156 F.2d 555 (1946)

In re POTTS.

Patent Appeal No. 5017.

Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.

June 27, 1946.

Dawson, Booth & Spangenberg, of Chicago, Ill. (Carl C. Batz, of Chicago, Ill., of counsel), for petitioner.

W. W. Cochran of Washington, D. C., for Commissioner of Patents.

Before GARRETT, Presiding Judge, and BLAND, HATFIELD, JACKSON, and O'CONNELL, Associate Judges.

GARRETT, Presiding Judge.

January 7, 1946, we issued a written decision in this case which is an appeal from the decision of the Board of Appeals of the United States Patent Office sustaining the rejection by the examiner of five claims, numbered 8 to 12, inclusive, of appellant's application for patent directed to a process of preparing nitriles.

Our decision so issued affirmed the decision of the board.

In conformity with our practice, the decision was withheld from formal publication pending the exercise of appellant's right to petition for reconsideration.

Appellant filed a petition for reconsideration, and, by permission of the court, filed a brief therewith.

We have reconsidered the case and have concluded that we erred in affirming the decision of the board.

Accordingly, our original decision is withdrawn and this is presented in lieu thereof.

Claim 9 reads as follows:

"9. In a method for preparing aliphatic nitriles in which a fatty substance chosen from a group consisting of fatty acids of at least six carbon atoms and esters thereof is reacted at elevated temperatures with gaseous ammonia, the steps of introducing the vapor of said fatty substance and gaseous ammonia into a reaction chamber and in contact with a dehydrating catalyst, introducing into contact with the chamber in heat transfer relation with the fatty substance and gaseous ammonia therein a vaporous heating medium having a boiling point between 570° F. and 700° F., said vaporous heating medium when introduced being at a temperature above the boiling point thereof, whereby the reaction between the vaporous fatty substance and the gaseous ammonia proceeds and takes up heat within the chamber and a portion of the medium is condensed, the latent heat of vaporization of the medium causing heat to be imparted to the reaction chamber while the temperature of the chamber and the products therein is maintained at the boiling point of the medium, and withdrawing the condensate of the medium." (Italics supplied.)

The italicized clause constitutes the limitation upon which appellant relies for patentability, it being connected with the condensation feature as defined in the "whereby" clause immediately following it.

Each of the claims embraces the limitation so emphasized.

Drawings of appellant's application depict an apparatus for carrying out his process, as it is described in the specification. There is disclosed the feeding of fatty acids or esters thereof into a vaporizing chamber having a heating coil with a simultaneous feeding into the chamber of gaseous ammonia which mixes with the vaporized acids. The mixture is heated in the chamber to a temperature of 550° F. and is fed from the chamber into a catalyst chamber where it passes through tubes filled with a catalyst such as Al2O3. A heating fluid defined as diphenyl or diphenyl oxide, introduced through a pipe, surrounds the tubes and elevates the temperature of the mixed gases to a range of 570° F. to 700° F. The nitriles produced in the catalyst chamber are passed through a condenser and separator and finally pass out through a pipe, the excess ammonia passing out through another pipe.

The following references were cited: Dow 1,893,051 January 3, 1933; Nicodemus et al 2,037,389 April 14, 1936; Ralston et al 2,061,314 November 17, 1936; Andrews 2,120,538 June 14, 1938; British patent 451,594 August 5, 1936.

Concerning the references, the examiner stated:

"The Nicodemus et al patent of reacting fatty acids or esters with gaseous ammonia in the presence of a dehydration catalyst at 572° F-482° F to prepare the corresponding nitriles.

"The Ralston et al patent discloses reacting gaseous ammonia with higher fatty acids or esters at a temperature of above 626° F. in the presence of a catalyst, vaporizing off the water, and thus preparing nitriles.

"The British patent discloses reacting the vapor of fatty acids or esters with gaseous ammonia in the presence of a dehydration catalyst at temperatures of 608° F. upward to prepare nitriles. A number of examples disclose operation of exact temperatures or within a narrow range such as 10° C. For instance, Example 7 discloses a `working...