Appeal No. 1999-1158
Application No. 08/687,427
discloses using a floor adhesive polymer having a transition
temperature between1
-15EC and +15EC which is substantially outside the here-claimed
glass transition temperature range of below -25EC. We find
nothing and the examiner points to nothing in the Young
reference
which would have suggested modifying patentee’s transition
temperature range so as to fall within the here-claimed range.
In the rejections based on Young in combination with either
Taylor or Miyazawa, the examiner concludes that it would have
been obvious to replace the adhesive used by Young in his method
of adhering a floor covering with the adhesives of either Taylor
or Miyazawa. Even assuming an artisan would have made the
replacement proposed by the examiner (which is doubtful in light
of the disparate utilities of the involved adhesives), it seems
clear that the artisan would have used only the replacement
adhesive polymers having a transition temperature within the
range expressly taught by Young as effective in his method.
1Both the appellants and the examiner, at least
implicitly, have considered the “transition temperature”
phrase used by Young as synonymous with the “glass transition
temperature” phrase recited in appealed claim 1.
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