Appeal No. 1998-0654
Application No. 08/522,874
Appealed claims 1-11 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103
as being unpatentable over Tsaur in view of Gerstein.
Upon careful consideration of the opposing arguments
presented on appeal, we find that the prior art cited by the
examiner fails to establish a prima facie case of obviousness
for the claimed subject matter. Accordingly, we will not
sustain the examiner's rejection.
While Tsaur discloses a composition comprising components
within the scope of claim 1, the examiner recognizes that the
composition of Tsaur is a hairspray, not a shampoo. To
alleviate this deficiency of Tsaur, the examiner relies upon
Gerstein which discloses an aqueous-based shampoo which
comprises anionic and amphoteric surfactants, a hair styling
polymer and a cationic conditioning polymer. Although the
examiner appreciates that Gerstein does not disclose
appellants' water insoluble polymer latex particles as a hair
styling polymer or a conditioning polymer, the examiner
concludes that:
It is a matter of ordinary skill in the art to
formulate the nonaerosol aqueous composition of
Tsaur et al[.] as a shampoo in order to acheive
[sic] cleansing and setting of the hair in a single
treatment based on the teaching in Gerstein that an
-4-
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007