Appeal 2007-4097
Application 09/792,776
we will sustain each of the Examiner’s rejections for the reasons set forth in
the present record. We add the following.2
Appellants’ claimed invention is directed to a method of preparing a
thermoplastic resin composition by first preparing a crosslinked softening
agent composition, and thereafter blending the pre-crosslinked softening
agent with a thermoplastic resin to obtain the thermoplastic resin
composition. The pre-crosslinked softening agent is prepared by blending
and heat treating at least the following components (a) at least one non-
aromatic hydrocarbon softening agent; (b) an organic peroxide; and (c) a
crosslinking aid (Specification 2). According to Appellants, one advantage
of crosslinking the softening agent by itself is that the liquid crosslinking
agent becomes a jelly-like or solid material that is easier to handle in
subsequent blending with a thermoplastic resin (Br. 2).
The Examiner contends that the Specification, page 3, teaches the
inclusion of thermoplastic resins during the crosslinking step is permissible
in the formation of the crosslinked softening agent. Thus, the claimed
description of the pre-crosslinked softening agent “consisting essentially of”
components (a), (b), and (c) does not exclude thermoplastic resins (Answer
3-4).
Appellants contend that claims 1-9 are patentable over Tasaka and
Hamanaka. Appellants’ position rests on the interpretion of the transitional
2 The issue for both rejections is the same. Thus, we will discuss the
rejections together. Appellants have not presented arguments directed to all
the rejected claims. We select claim 1 as representative of the rejected
claims.
3
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