Appeal No. 96-0607
Application No. 08/134,778
“It is well-established that before a conclusion of
obviousness may be made based on a combination of references,
there must have been a reason, suggestion, or motivation to
lead an inventor to combine those references.” Pro-Mold and
Tool Co. v. Great Lakes Plastics Inc., 75 F.3d 1568, 1573, 37
USPQ2d 1626, 1629 (Fed. Cir. 1996). Daniel and Barnett are
both directed to latex binders useful in paints with the
objective of improving the stability of the latex composition.
Although Barnett does not disclose core/shell polymers,
Barnett does disclose and teach the applicability of his
concept to vinyl acetate polymers and Daniel discloses that
his core polymer includes vinyl acetate (column 2, line 26).
Accordingly, the teaching of Barnett that anionic surfactants
with ionic monomers produce very stable vinyl acetate latexes
would have suggested to one of ordinary skill in the art to
use the anionic surfactants of Barnett in the emulsion
polymerization of Daniel involving AMPS to improve the
stability of the core polymer (see the answer, page 5).
Furthermore, Barnett teaches the relative equivalence of alkyl
benzene sulfonate and alkyl diphenyloxide disulfonate as
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