Appeal No. 96-2323
Application 08/116,555
The claims stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
follows: claims 1-3, 5, 7-15, 17 and 18 over Fan; claim 16
over Fan in view of 13 Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and
Engineering; and claims 4 and 16 over Fan in view of Cadel.
OPINION
We have carefully considered all of the arguments
advanced by appellants and the examiner and agree with
appellants that the aforementioned rejections are not well
founded. Accordingly, we reverse these rejections.
We first address the rejection of appellants’ broadest
process claim, which is claim 1, and then address the
rejection of product-by-process claim 18.
Rejection of claim 1
Fan discloses a process for making a water-in-oil
emulsion of a water-soluble polymer by polymerizing at least
one water-soluble vinyl monomer which is in a water-in-oil
emulsion (col. 2, lines 3-20). Before the polymerization is
initiated, the water-in-oil emulsion is deoxygenated by a
method such as subjecting it to a vacuum of from about 50 to
about 500 mm of mercury under an inert gas atmosphere at a
3
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