Appeal No. 1996-0438
Application No. 08/090,343
increasing the fluidity of the resin mixture. Significantly,
we find that appealed claim 26 encompasses compositions which
comprise a major amount of a polyepoxide and a minor amount of
a monoepoxide. This is so because page 15 of appellants'
specification expressly discloses that "[t]he epoxy compounds
can be monoepoxies, or, preferably, a polyepoxide having an
average of at least two epoxy groups per molecule." (emphasis
added.) Since the specification discloses that a polyepoxide
is preferable to a monoepoxide, it is reasonable to interpret
claim 26, by virtue of the "comprises" language, as embracing
a major amount of the preferred polyepoxide and a minor amount
of the non-preferred monoepoxide. While appellants maintain
that "Heilman teaches only limited
application of the monoepoxide" (page 4 of appellants'
response of April 3, 1995), the appealed claims encompass
compositions comprising limited, or minor, amounts of a
monoepoxide. Also, since Heilman teaches that "the
incorporation of a monoepoxy diluent may reduce the cross-
7
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007