Appeal No. 1997-3118
Application No. 08/372,083
THE REJECTION
Claims 1-6, 9-30 and 33-50 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103 as being unpatentable over Smith in view of Strazdins,
Economou or NL ‘507.
OPINION
We have carefully considered all of the arguments
advanced by appellants and the examiner and agree with
appellants that the aforementioned rejection is not well
founded. Accordingly, we reverse this rejection.
Smith discloses a process for preparing an aqueous
papermaking suspension containing pulp fibers and a
polyelectrolyte complex (page 1, lines 1-3; page 3, lines 2-
3). The pulp is unbleached pulp (page 3, lines 39-40 and page
3, line 46 - page 4, line 2) which, appellants indicate
(specification, page 2, line 26 - page 3, line 3), normally
contains surface active carboxyl compounds at levels
sufficient to interfere with the performance of strength
enhancing additives. Smith’s polyelectrolyte complex is
formed from water soluble cationic and anionic polymers which,
appellants state (specification, page 8, lines 2-6), are their
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