Appeal No. 1997-2446
Application 08/223,351
weight copolymer in the process disclosed by Hughes. In reaching our
conclusion that the herein claimed process would have been prima
facie obvious in view of the combined teachings of the references, we
have not ignored appellants' argument that one of ordinary skill in
the art would not expect that a sulfite chain transfer agent would
function in that capacity in the presence of a monoethylenically
unsaturated dicarboxylic acid monomer. In this regard, appellants
have cited an excerpt from Maleic Anhydride by B. C. Trivedi,
published in Plenum, New York (1982), page 53, which indicates that
maleic acid and other related compounds when treated with sodium
sulfite
or sodium bisulfite form an addition product. However, without
further explanation in the reference regarding specific condi- tions,
one of ordinary skill in the art may very well read this
disclosure as simply and implicitly explaining the mechanism by which
the sodium sulfite or sodium bisulfite functions as a chain transfer
agent in the presence of maleic acid. As pointed out by Holy, common
chain transfer agents such as bisulfites are known to impart
8
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007