Appeal No. 1995-0770
Application No. 07/929,457
The limitations added to independent claim 1 by these dependent claims are all
specifically taught in Kamath '703. For claims 2 and 3, see column 4, lines 20-32. For
claims 7, 8 and 28, see column 2, line 55-column 4, line 50. For claims 11, 12 and 14-16,
see column 4, lines 3-10. For claim 18, see column 7, lines 64-66. Accordingly, they
warrant no further discussion.
Claims 13 and 17
Claim 13 requires that the temperature in step 5 be from about 100 to about 110E
C. Claim 17 requires that the pressure is maintained at from about 50 to about 400
kilopascals above ambient atmospheric pressure. As set forth above, temperature and
pressure are result effective variables in the process described by Kamath '703. As such,
it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to optimize these
parameters. Id.
Claims 4 through 7, 9, 10, and 19 through 21
Claims 4 through 7 limit the monomers used in independent claim 1 to specified
amounts of styrene, ethyl acrylate, and acrylic acid. Claims 9 and 10 limit the method of
independent claim 1 to specified solvents and amounts of solvent. Claims 19 through 21
limit independent claim 1 to producing copolymers exhibiting a specified polydispersity
value or molecular weight.
Tam describes terpolymers comprising styrene, ethyl acrylate and acrylic acid. See,
e.g., column 16, line 25 - column 17, line 28. The terpolymer of Tam '307 is to be used in
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