Appeal No. 1996-3847 Page 4
Application No. 08/162,063
compositions. The Specification indicates that the simplest way to make thickened cleaning
compositions is to add a thickener to a non-viscous product. However, according to the Specification,
it was also known in the art to formulate a composition that is thick without the addition of thickener by
combining an anionic surfactant with an electrolyte in an aqueous medium. The viscosity of the mixture
can be adjusted by balancing the two ingredients. What Appellants have done is used this self-
thickening technique with a specific surfactant, an alkyl sulphate anionic surfactant derived from1
coconut oil. Appellants found that when the coconut oil derived surfactant was combined with
electrolyte, the composition was not physically stable at low temperature and the product underwent
phase separation. Appellants solved this problem by using specific ammonium salts as the electrolyte
and adding a nonionic surfactant from a selected class to the mixture. Claim 1 is directed to a
composition of a specific viscosity range including
1 to 25 weight percent coconut oil derived alkyl sulphate anionic surfactant,
0.1 to 8 weight percent ammonium salts and
0.5 to 25 weight percent nonionic surfactant of a selected class.
Against this back drop we turn to the rejections.
1We note that page 2 of the Specification uses the spelling “sulfate” while the claims use the
spelling “sulphate”. The prior art also varies the spelling of sulphur based compounds. To be
consistent, we will use the “sulphate” spelling.
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