Benjamin A. Vastine, Ph.D.
Patent Agent
Tel (703) 413-3000

Benjamin A. Vastine, Ph.D.

Patent Agent

BENJAMIN (BEN) A. VASTINE, Ph.D., is a registered patent agent in the firm’s Chemical Patent Prosecution group. Dr. Vastine prosecutes patents in a variety of technologies, including semiconductors, silicone compositions, and polymers.

While achieving his Ph.D. in chemistry, Dr. Vastine’s primary fields of research consisted of transition-metal mediated C–H bond activation and hydrogen transfer reactions where representative systems were studied with theoretical methods.

His undergraduate research in material science involved studies of thin film deposition on hydrophobic substrates. While studying thin film deposition, Dr. Vastine gained extensive experience in experimental and characterization techniques including Langmuir-Blodgett film deposition, Brewster's angle microscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, and atomic-force microscopy.

Board Reverses Examiner for Improper Reliance on Inherency in an Obviousness Rejection
Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Claims to compositions frequently include properties exhibited by the claimed compositions in addition to limitations to the components of the compositions.  In making obviousness rejections against such claims, Examiners often combine references disclosing the various components of the claimed compositions and assert that these...

Board raises new ground of rejection on a single piece of art that had been cited in combination by the Examiner
Thursday, February 02, 2012

In Ex parte Sciulli et al.; appeal no. 2009-013096; application no.

Ex parte Fiandaca
Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Ex parte Fiandaca; Appeal No. 2010-006135, Application No. 11/607,816, Decided on August 16, 2011.

Ex parte Perc
Thursday, July 14, 2011

The claims in Perc (Appeal No. 2011-003119, Application No.

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