Appeal No. 96-0473
Application No. 08/082,727
OPINION
I. Rejection of claims 1, 2 and 5 through 7 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over
Wellman in view of Crystal.
The examiner found that Wellman substantially teaches the claimed invention, except for (a) the
disperse phase having a glass transition temperature of not higher than 20EC and (b) the use of a block
and/or graft copolymer with at least one monomer being compatible with the disperse phase and the
other monomer being compatible with the continuous phase. The examiner also found that Crystal
teaches toners with (a) a disperse phase having a glass transition temperature below 20EC and (b) the
use of a block and/or graft copolymer having one monomer compatible with the continuous phase and
the other monomer compatible with the disperse phase. The examiner concluded it would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Wellman’s toner by using (a) a disperse phase with
a glass transition temperature of less than 20EC and (b) a block and/or graft copolymer as claimed
because Crystal taught (a) that low glass transition temperature resins have desirable fixing properties
and (b) that the block and/or graft copolymer allows more complete dispersion of the disperse phase in
the continuous phase. See Answer, pages 3-5.
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