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IN RE COLEMAN
United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (1980) | 621 F.2d 1141
TL;DR: Inventors claimed a chemical process using a specific starting material. The court held the process obvious because its parameters overlapped with prior art, and evidence of unexpected results at one point in the claimed range was insufficient to rebut obviousness across the entire range.
Legal Significance: This case establishes two key patent law rules: (1) a starting material is a relevant process limitation if it affects the process itself, and (2) evidence of unexpected results used to rebut obviousness must be commensurate in scope with the claims.