Appeal 2006-2854
Application 10/348,165
(i) at least one first solvent in which the dye and the
microparticle polymer are soluble;
(ii) at least one tuning solvent in which the dye and the
microparticle polymer are not or only weakly soluble, said first and
tuning solvents being immiscible or at most partially miscible;
(iii) at least one third solvent in which the dye and the
microparticle polymer are not or only weakly soluble, said third
solvent being miscible with the first and tuning solvents;
(b) forming a suspension of said polymer microparticles in a
designated volume of a mixture comprising at least one tuning solvent and at
least one third solvent;
(c) adding to said polymer microparticle suspension a solution
comprising the dye dissolved in said first solvent whereby the dye is taken
up by the microparticles to provide a master-batch suspension of
microparticles characterized by a first concentration of said dye in the
microparticles;
(d) creating two or more aliquots from said microparticle master-batch
suspension containing selected added amounts of tuning solvent, wherein the
added tuning solvent increases the amount of dye partitioning to the polymer
rnicroparticles in said aliquots without precipitating the dye; and
(e) incubating the polymer microparticle suspension aliquots for a
period of time so that the amount of dye partitioning to the microparticles,
for a given initial dye concentration in the dye solution, is controlled by the
amount of tuning solvent added to the microparticle suspension aliquots.
The Examiner relies on the following references in rejecting the
appealed subject matter:
Chen ‘363 US 4,199,363 Apr. 22, 1980
Hair US 4.680,332 Jul. 14, 1987
Yamaguchi US5,288,577 Feb. 22, 1994
Wright US5,301,044 Apr. 05, 1994
Kemeny US 6,126,731 Oct. 03, 2000
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