Appeal No. 2006-2617
Application No. 10/729,446
2. ANTICIPATION
Claims 1, 5, 8, and 18 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as
being anticipated by Sosa.1
The Examiner states that Sosa “discloses a process for producing an
impact rubber modified polystyrene composition comprising a styrene-
butadiene-styrene (SBS) block copolymer . . . and polymerizable
vinylaromatic hydrocarbon monomer . . . .” (Answer 4-5.) The Examiner
notes that Sosa’s product is transparent, and therefore meets the limitation
requiring a haze value of less than or equal to 12 percent. (Id. at 5.)
As stated in Gechter v. Davidson, 116 F.3d 1454, 1457, 43 USPQ2d
1030, 1032 (Fed. Cir. 1997), “[u]nder 35 U.S.C. § 102, every limitation of a
claim must identically appear in a single prior art reference for it to
anticipate the claim.”
We agree with the Examiner that Sosa anticipates claim 18. Sosa
discloses a process of making “Transparent Impact PolyStyrene, or TIPS,” a
“class of materials which are made from various copolymers and styrene
monomer.” (Sosa, col. 1, ll. 29-31.) Sosa’s TIPS materials are made “from
an elastomer and a monovinylaromatic polymer.” (Sosa, col. 4, ll. 1-3.)
As the elastomer component, Sosa states that “TIPS can be
manufactured . . . by selecting appropriate SBS [(styrene-butadiene-styrene)]
structures that will form lamellar or rod morphologies.” (Sosa, col. 4, ll. 24-
27.) We also note that Sosa exemplifies preparing TIPS with the elastomer
“Finaclear 530” (Sosa, col. 6, ll. 56-66), a product described on page 14 of
Appellants’ Specification as “a tapered triblock styrene-butadiene-styrene
1 Sosa et al., U.S. Patent 6,437,043 B1, issued August 20, 2002
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