Appeal No. 95-1373
Application No. 08/011,074
are sufficiently bound apart from each other in the gum matrix
to prevent them from reacting until the gum is chewed. Saliva
generated by the chewing process effects reaction between the
acid and basic substance.
Appealed claims 2, 4, 5, 7 and 9 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Kehoe.
Upon careful consideration of the opposing arguments
presented on appeal, we concur with appellants that the
disclosure of Kehoe fails to establish a prima facie case of
obviousness for the claimed invention. Accordingly, we will
not sustain the examiner's rejection.
Kehoe discloses a wide variety of chewable articles that
may, in turn, contain a wide variety of active ingredients.
At column 2, lines 38-50, Kehoe lists chewing gum as one of 14
chewable articles, and at column 2, lines 62 et seq., aspirin
(acetylsalicylic acid) is specified in an extensive list of
active ingredients. Based on these disclosures, we find, as
acknowledged by appellants, that it would have been obvious
for one of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate aspirin as
an active ingredient in chewing gum.
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