Appeal No. 2002-0178
Application 09/385,909
IX. The rejection of claims 1-8, 12, 15, 17, 23, 25, 27, 28, 30-
32, 34-37, 41 and 43 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Tsutsumi
On pages 11-12 of the answer, the examiner states that
Tsutsumi discloses a process for preparing an ink comprising
mixing an ink vehicle, such as water, a dye, and a latex that is
prepared by the polymerization of olefinic monomers in the
presence of nonionic surfactant and an anionic surfactant.
The examiner states that the ink composition of Tsutsumi further
contains ink additives such as biocide and stabilizers. The
examiner states that the ink is printed using an ink jet printer.
(answer, pages 11-12).
Appellants argue that Tsutsumi illustrates a process for
generating an aqueous ink, wherein the process involves the step
of dissolving a salt-forming group-having polymer and an
hydrophobic dye in a water soluble organic solvent to obtain a
solution, adding water and a neutralizing agent to the solution
to ionize the salt forming group-having polymer, emulsifying the
resulting mixture, and removing the solvent to obtain a
dispersion of the polymer particles in which the dye has been
encompassed. (brief, page 12). Appellants state that this is
different from their claimed process wherein a latex is generated
by the polymerization of a mixture of olefinic monomers wherein
at least one of the monomers is an ionic sulfonate monomer and
wherein the polymerization is accomplished in the presence of an
anionic surfactant and a nonionic surfactant. (brief, page 12).
We find that Tsutsumi is directed to a process for producing
an aqueous ink for ink jet printing. At column 6, beginning at
line 48, Tsutsumi discloses that the polymer is produced by
copolymerizing one or more monomers selected from the group
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