Patent Interference No. 103,548
monohydroxyindolines, like dihydroxyindolines, are useful in hair-dyeing, FR '797's
teaching of C0 and C2 alkyl N-substituted monohydroxyindolines, and the concomitant
suggestion of interchangeability between them, would have led one of ordinary skill in
the art to view the C0-C4 alkyl N-substituents on indolines as equally interchangeable.
We note that Lagrange (LB 114-15) disputes the relevance of FR '797's
monohydroxyindolines to Lagrange's dihydroxyindolines, not with respect to the view,
suggested by '797, that the C0-C4 N-substituents on the indoline are interchangeable,
but on the grounds that FR '797 teaches (a) monohydroxyindolines rather than
Lagrange's dihydroxyindolines, and (b) monohydroxyindolines as couplers with an
oxidation dye (i.e., a base such as paraphenylenediamine) .
Regarding argument (a), aside from carrying only a single hydroxyl group, the
compounds of FR '797 are structurally similar to the indolines of Konrad/Lagrange as
well as the indoles of Grollier '500. We are not made aware of any differences which
would outweigh the similarities in structure and utility that would lead one of ordinary
skill in the hair dyeing art away from correlating FR '797's suggested interchangeability
of substituents on the monohydroxyindoline structure to a like interchangeability of
substituents on an dihydroxyindoline structure.
Regarding argument (b), we are not persuaded that FR '797's use of
monohydroxyindolines as couplers makes the FR '797 teaching irrelevant as prior art
against Lagrange's dihydroxyindolines. We agree with Konrad (KOB 6, paragraph 17)
that, although FR '797 does include a base, Lagrange's claims do not exclude it.
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