Appeal No. 1997-2437
Application No. 08/230,378
"conventional polystyrene sulfuric acid polymers lack the
recited indane ring content of the subject polymers . . . they
do not result in dispersions having comparable stability to
dispersions obtained using the subject polymers" (paragraph
bridging pages 5 and 6 of Brief).
Appealed claims 1-8 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103
as being unpatentable over appellants' acknowledged prior art,
considered alone, or in combination with Yax and Young.
Upon careful consideration of the opposing arguments
presented on appeal, we agree with appellants that the
examiner has not established a prima facie case of obviousness
for the claimed subject matter. Accordingly, for essentially
the reasons expressed by appellants in their Brief, we will
not sustain the examiner's rejection.
It is the examiner's position that since appellants'
specification acknowledges that it was known in the art to
produce polystyrenesulfonic acid as a dispersant, and it was
known in the art, as evidenced by the secondary references, to
use a cationic catalyst to polymerize styrene monomers,
"[p]resence of indane terminals would be obvious in PSA
because prior art polymers of styrene have been prepared by
-3-
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