Appeal No. 1997-2335 Page 2
Application No. 08/367,913
appellant, the claimed copolymer has "... greater melt flow,
lower flexural modulus, improved impact resistance, and/or
improved chemical resistance, but without sacrifice to the use
temperature of the polymer" as compared to uniformly random
VDF/HFP copolymers (specification, page 5 and brief, page 3).
An understanding of the invention can be derived from a
reading of claim 51, the sole independent claim on appeal,
which is reproduced below.
51. A vinylidene fluoride-
hexafluoroproplylene copolymer comprising one or
more discrete vinylidene fluoride-
hexafluoroproplylene copolymer domains and one
or more discrete vinylidene fluoride homopolymer
domains including a major vinylidene fluoride
homopolymer domain which contains at least about
50% of the vinylidene fluoride content of the
copolymer, said copolymer having a
hexafluoropropylene content of from about 1% to
about 20% by weight of the copolymer.
The sole prior art reference of record relied upon by the
examiner in rejecting the appealed claims is:
Tournut et al. (Tournut), "SOME ASPECTS OF THERMOPLASTIC
COPOLYMERS OF VINYLIDENE FLUORIDE," ATOCHEM C.R.R.A.1
1According to appellant, the cited Tournut reference "...
is a three-page print of a poster by Tournut presented at a
joint meeting of the Third Chemical Congress of North America
and the 195th American Chemical Society National Meeting in
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