Appeal No. 95-1373
Application No. 08/011,074
This is an appeal from the final rejection of claims 2,
4, 5, 7 and 9, all the claims remaining in the present
application. Claim 7 is illustrative:
Claim 7. An acetylsalicyclic acid-salt releasing chewing
gum comprising acetylsalicylic acid, and a basic substance
capable of reacting with said acetylsalicylic acid to form an
acetylsalicylic acid salt, said gum containing not more than
about 2% of water and said acetylsalicylic acid and said basic
substance being bound in said chewing gum apart from each
other sufficiently to prevent them from reacting with each
other until said chewing gum is chewed, which gum when chewed
in the presence of saliva brings said acetylsalicylic acid
into contact with said basic substance so that they react to
form said acetylsalicylic acid salt which is then rapidly
released to the saliva, said basic substance being selected
from the group consisting of an alkaline earth metal
carbonate, calcium hydroxide, magnesium hydroxide, light
magnesium carbonate, heavy magnesium carbonate or magnesium
oxide, tris-(hydroxymethyl)-aminomethane, alkali metal
phosphates or alkaline earth metal phosphates and basic amino
acids, the amount of basic substance being such that together
with the amount of acetylsalicylic acid employed there results
a buffer capacity of between 5 and 15 mEq.
The examiner relies upon the following reference as
evidence of obviousness:
Kehoe 4,975,270 Dec. 4, 1990
Appellants' claimed invention is directed to a chewing
gum that releases a salt of acetylsalicylic acid. The gum
comprises acetylsalicylic acid and a basic substance, such as
an alkaline earth metal carbonate, that is capable of reacting
with the acid to form the salt. The acid and basic substance
-2-
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