Appeal No. 1997-1791
Application No. 08/485,304
respect to the volatiles content of the disclosed hydrogel.
However, it is the examiner's position that since appellants'
specification states that a minimum volatiles content of 40% is
necessary to maintain the pore volume, and the pore volume of
Cohen's hydrogel meets the claimed pore volume of at least
1.0 ml/g, it necessarily follows that Cohen "must inherently have
such volatiles content" (page 4 of Answer).
If the only evidence of record pertaining to volatiles
content was appellant's specification disclosure referenced by
the examiner (page 9, lines 9-15), we might agree with the
examiner that it is reasonable to conclude that the hydrogel of
Cohen has a volatiles content of at least 40 wt.%. However, this
is not the case. As urged by appellants, the instant
specification discloses that "it is important that the
temperature increase of the hydrogel during the milling process
be minimized" (page 9, lines 10-12), and "[s]uch milling
conditions, as noted above, are characterized by the absence of a
substantial temperature increase of the hydrogel during milling"
(page 9, lines 30-33). On the other hand, Cohen indicates no
appreciation for minimizing temperature during milling of the
hydrogel but, rather, teaches that high temperature milling is
employed. For instance, Cohen discloses that:
Two drying methods were found to give consistently
higher pore volumes: (1) heating a thin layer of the
gel in a preheated dish in a muffle furnace at 500° to
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