Appeal No. 96-2323
Application 08/116,555
temperature of from about 10° to about 40°C (col. 3, lines 59-
67).1 During the polymerization, the reaction rate may be
controlled by introducing a small amount of air or oxygen into
the reaction such that the oxygen concentration of the
emulsion is desirably about 0.01 to about 1 parts per million
(col. 4, lines 42-59), which is about 10 to about 1000 parts
per billion (ppb). The teaching that the oxygen concentration
can be raised to a level of 10 ppb during polymerization would
have fairly suggested, to one of ordinary skill in the art,
carrying out the deoxygenation of the emulsion prior to the
polymerization such that the oxygen concentration is less than
10 ppb. Such an oxygen concentration is within the range
recited in appellants’ claim 1.
In view of the above disclosures, we are not persuaded by
appellants’ arguments that Fan does not suggest appellants’
oxygen concentration before polymerization and that Fan’s
disclosure of introducing oxygen teaches away from appellants’
claimed invention (brief, pages 10-11).
1 Appellants disclose reducing the dissolved oxygen
concentration of their water-in-oil emulsion by blowing
nitrogen or argon through the emulsion (specification, page 5).
4
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