Appeal No. 1997-0722
Application 08/364,589
Appellants have made no arguments regarding the
examiner's combination of the prior art reference teachings of
Miller and Nowak. What Appellants argue is that the Nowak
polymers "are only remotely related to the polymers of this
invention." See the brief at page 4. Thus, appellants
characterize the Nowak copolymer as including a vinylamine
unit, a vinyl alcohol unit and an alkyl N-vinyl carbamate.
According to appellants, the addition of the carbamate
functionality allegedly changes the physical characteristics
of the Nowak polymer and is significantly different from the
polymers of appellants' claimed invention. See the brief page
5. However, we cannot subscribe to appellants' implicit
argument that the relevant claimed language defining
appellants' vinylamine polymer excludes carbamate units. The
claimed language simply defines appellants' vinylamine polymer
as "including" from about 1 to about 99 mole percent
vinylamine and from about 1 to about 99 mole percent of, inter
alia, a vinyl alcohol. Thus the relevant claim language does
not exclude the carbamate unit of the prior art Nowak
copolymer. Moreover, in any event, we note that Nowak also
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