Appeal No. 95-3875
Application 08/049,613
released (col. 5, lines 15-18; col. 6, lines 47-50).
The portion of Mochizuki relied upon by the examiner (answer, page 4) teaches
that mixing cationic antimicrobial agents with conventional natural rubber latices
causes the natural rubber latices to either gel instantaneously or have an unduly short
pot life (col. 2, lines 44-51). Mochizuki discloses that antimicrobial latex compositions
having sufficiently long pot life to be molded into products including medical devices
are produced by incorporating a cationic antimicrobial agent into a cationic natural or
synthetic rubber latex (col. 3, lines 20-42).
The examiner argues that substitution of Stephenson’s aqueous antimicrobial
solution for Stockum’s polymeric solution would have been obvious to one of ordinary
skill in the art who was not concerned with expense and who desired an even
distribution of antimicrobial agent throughout a surgical glove (answer, pages 3-4).
This argument is not persuasive because the examiner has not pointed out where
Stephenson discloses that his aqueous solution distributes throughout the surgical aid.
Stephenson states that his antimicrobial composition is retained by the elastomeric
heparin polymer layer on the surface of the surgical aid (col. 6, lines 27-28 and 47-50),
which indicates that the antimicrobial composition does not disperse throughout the
surgical aid.
The examiner argues that permeation of antimicrobials is a direct result of
dipping an uncured glove into an aqueous antimicrobial solution (answer, page 5).
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