Appeal No. 1997-0311
Application No. 08/340,017
we will not sustain the examiner's rejections of claim 12.
Our reasoning follows.
We consider first the rejection of claims 1-5, 7, 8 and
10 under § 103 over Gamon. Appellants do not dispute the2
examiner's factual determination that Gamon discloses an
aqueous dispersion comprising each one of components (A)-(E)
of appealed claim 1. The thrust of appellants' argument is
that claimed components (D), a compound containing basic
nitrogen, and (E), a polyvinyl alcohol, are only taught by
Gamon as optional components of the dispersion. However, we
know no rule of law that requires a finding of nonobviousness
when claimed components of a composition are taught by the
prior art to be optional. In the present case, Gamon
expressly teaches that the silicone dispersions of the
disclosed invention may contain adhesion promoters, such as
amino-functional silanes, which meet the requirement of the
claimed "compound containing basic nitrogen" (see column 5,
lines 4-16). In addition, Gamon specifically teaches that
2Claims 2-5, 7, 8 and 10 stand or fall together with
claim 1.
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