Court Opinion

ID: 9445499
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:30:55.513974+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:17.680958
License: Public Domain

RICH, Judge
(concurring, in which JACKSON, J., joins).
I agree that the rejection of the claims should be reversed but my view of the prior art is this:
The Dietert reference clearly teaches a molding sand composed of silica sand, bentonite and silica flour in the proportions claimed. The first two ingredients are conventional. This reference teaches the addition of silica flour to overcome disadvantages in using cheaper and more readily available clays than bentonite, such as montmorillonite, but, far from precluding the use of bentonite, he concludes his specification by saying in effect that any clay suitable for foundry use may be used.
The British Goldschmidt patent, however, fails to suggest the substitution of olivine flour for the silica flour in the Dietert patent composition. It teaches the use of a mold body made entirely of granular olivine, from which fines in the *750flour category have been carefully removed, and bound with a suitable clay such as bentonite. His mold contains no silica sand at all. The fines he has removed, or fines otherwise produced and fine enough to be called flour, are then made into a slurry and painted on the mold as a facing. I do not see how this would suggest the incorporation of olivine flour in a silica sand and bentonite molding composition.
I regard the avoidance of the silicosis hazard as merely an obvious advantage attendant upon the avoidance in the foundry of materials which produce it. While this occupational hazard may have been an incentive which led to the making of the invention, I cannot see that it should be taken into account in determining patentability. Applicant has not discovered either the cause of nor a cure for silicosis. Patentability should not be predicated to any degree on the fact that olivine does not cause silicosis for the further reason that this fact is disclosed by Goldschmidt.