Appeal No. 1996-0875
Application No. 08/169,918
nonlimiting claim language in question in the appealed claims,
appellants’ solid polyglycerol ester particles may be formed
from a long chain fatty acid mixture of 60% unsaturated acids
and 40% saturated acids. Contrary to appellants’ arguments,
we see no claim language in the appealed claims (which are
defined by “comprising” terminology) which limits the ester
groups of the polyglycerol ester component to only saturated
long chain fatty acid radicals of C -C fatty acids.16 26 .
Moreover, contrary to appellants’ arguments in the brief at
page 5, Young’s predominantly saturated fatty acid polyesters
would necessarily possess a low iodine value.
Appellants also emphasize that the “claimed invention”
requires a specific thixotropic area which is set forth in
appealed claim 1 as a “Thixotropic Area Value of about
10kPa/sec or greater (emphasis added).” The range of this
value, however, overlaps with the range of the thixotropic
value of “about 200,000 pascals/sec or less” in patented claim
1 of Young. Thus, although the herein appealed claims cover
different subject matter from that of the patented claims in
Young, the claims are not patentably distinct from claims in
5
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