Application of Joseph G. Wilson, Robert F. Dutton, Terrell W. Haymes and Justin C. Dygert

SMITH, Judge.

Appealed claims 1-19 of appellants’ patent application 1 were, as stated by the Board of Appeals, “rejected as being unpatentable over” certain referene es. This rejection raises the single issue under 35 U.S.C. § 103 of the obviousness of the claimed invention.

The asserted invention with which we are here concerned relates to a process and accompanying apparatus which is employed particularly in connection with petroleum cracking in which a powdered metal oxide catalyst is used. The asserted improvement over prior processes and apparatus resides in the conservation and…