Appeal No. 94-1451
Application 07/839,640
the present invention.” However, appellant has provided no
objective evidence in support of this statement, which itself is
inconsistent with the originally filed disclosure in the
specification. It is well settled that attorney argument cannot
take the place of objective evidence in the record.
With respect to the applied prior art reference to Stern,
appellant contends that Stern specifies the structure of guar gum
useful in his foam composition as not containing a carboxylate
group. See the brief at page 5, lines 4 and 5. However, no
disclosure in Stern specifies a complete guar gum structure
without a carboxylate group. What Stern discloses is a partial
structure of a guar gum repeating unit (not a complete structure
of the copolymer) which is said to be the accepted structure of
that repeating unit. See Stern at column 5, lines 30-53. In any
event, Stern broadly teaches the use of any of the water-soluble,
polyhydroxy polymers known in the art, for example, as disclosed
in the “Handbook of Water-Soluble Gums and Resins” published by
McGraw-Hill Book Co. (1988). See Stern at column 4, lines 56-61.
Thus, even if the argument by appellant’s counsel is ultimately
confirmed, i.e., that only “certain” commercially available or
“certain” naturally occurring guar gums contain carboxylate
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