Appeal 2006-2739
Application 09/918,584
Before Appellants inserted “and a hydrophilic group” into the claim
and changed “backbone” to “base chain” (see Amendment of July 2, 2004),
the claim read “a dye chromophore incorporated into the polymer
backbone,” as is consistent with the second embodiment of the polymer
described in the Specification.
To support their arguments, Appellants rely upon the portions of the
Specification directed to the second embodiment, namely the Specification
at page 6, line 22 to page 7, line 12; the specific structures on pages 8 and 9;
and the Examples at page 11, line 19 to page 12, line 29.
The Specification describes ink jet ink compositions. The inks are
dye-based. According to the Specification “[a] dye is a colorant which is
dissolved in the carrier medium.” (Specification 2:12-13). Appellants’
carrier medium is water (Claim 1). The Specification discloses that
polymeric dyes were known in the art and their solubility is tunable
(Specification 3:4-7). The Specification discloses that for the polymeric dye
of the invention “[a]ny hyperbranched polymer may be used” (Specification
4:5-7) and then further discloses that those in a copending application
entitled “Water Soluble and Dispersible Highly Branched Polyamides” may
be used (Specification 4:14-19). Then the Specification describes preferred
embodiments of polymers having a variety of chemical groups, including
carbonyl groups, groups the Examiner acknowledges are hydrophilic
(Specification 6:22 to 7:2) and generic classes of polymers such as
polyamides, polyesters, polyethers, etc. (Specification 7:13-16) which
contain hydrophilic groups and can be water-soluble as well as chemical
specific species containing hydrophilic groups (Specification 8-9).
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