Appeal No. 95-2269
Application No. 08/047,159
embodiment. In setting forth the rejection, the examiner relies
on Fong's disclosure of a copolymer having N-substituted maleamic
acid units wherein the substituent group may be, inter alia,
linear or branched alkyl having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms (Fong,
column 3, lines 12 through 28). The examiner does not establish
that Fong would have led a person having ordinary skill in the
art to the claimed copolymer, prepared from at least one monomer
selected from the group consisting of N-dodecylmaleamic acid and
N-C /C -alkylmaleamic acid. Simply stated, the Fong reference is
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insufficient to support a conclusion of obviousness of claim 22
in view of component (b) recited therein. Fong's disclosure does
not reach N-dodecylmaleamic acid or N-C /C -alkylmaleamic acid
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recited in claim 22.
Furthermore, claim 22 defines a water-thickening copolymer
consisting essentially of (a) from 85 to 99% by weight of
acrylamide copolymerized with (b) from 1 to 15% by weight of at
least one monomer selected from the group consisting of N-
dodecylmaleamic acid and N-C /C -alkylmaleamic acid; said
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copolymer having a specified viscosity set forth in the last
clause of the claim. The examiner has not established that Fong
would have led a person having ordinary skill in the art to a
copolymer having those specified portions by weight of
components, namely, acrylamide (85 to 99% by weight)
-3-
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