Appeal No. 1996-2112
Application 08/210,217
“statistical interlinking,” and the examiner has not provided any evidence that those skilled
in the art would not agree with this definition, the rejection is reversed.
II.
The examiner has premised his initial conclusion of obviousness on the teachings
of Mitchell and Barlow. According to the examiner
Mitchell discloses adhesive compositions comprising bitumen
and two different block copolymers one of which is a tri-block of the
A-B-A structure and the other is a di-clock [sic, di-block] copolymer of
the A-B structure. Among suitable A-B-A block copolymers the
patentee lists styrene-isoprene-styrene block copolymer via reference
to the U.S. 3,978,014 (see col. 3, ln[.] 11-12 of Mitchell and col. 2, ln.
58-66 of 3,978,014). . . . The second copolymer, i.e.[,] the styrene-
butadiene di-block copolymer disclosed by the patentee completely
corresponds to the claimed di-block, and is defined as a copolymer
having one styrene block and one elastomeric block that is prepared
by copolymerization of a conjugated diene with an vinyl aromatic
compound. Specifically claimed random styrene-butadiene
elastomeric block would have been obvious from this definition since
the genus of random diene-vinyl aromatic copolymers is very small
and virtually limited to the styrene ( -methyl styrene)-butadiene or
styrene ( -methyl styrene) - isoprene copolymers, where styrene-
butadiene copolymers are the most conventional copolymers.
Addition of a star styrene-butadiene (isoprene) block copolymers to
the bituminous compositions disclosed by Mitchell would have been
obvious as per [the] teachings of Barlow. Barlow discloses that
compositions containing [a] combination of styrene-butadiene star-
block copolymers and linear styrene-isoprene block copolymers
exhibit improved properties in bituminous compositions compared to
compositions containing either radial or linear copolymer [sic,
copolymers]. . . . It would, therefore, have been obvious to add radial
5
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007