Appeal No. 96-2323
Application 08/116,555
(page 2) that the results show that a maximum dissolved oxygen
concentration of 100 ppb is critical.
Appellants point out that the only example in Fan in
which a dissolved oxygen concentration is disclosed is example
26 wherein the dissolved oxygen concentration is below 3000
ppb, preferably below 1000 ppb, and argue that in the
comparative experiments in the declaration, the dissolved
oxygen concentrations of 200 and 300 ppb are near the low end
of Fan’s range of about 10 to about 1000 ppb (brief, page 13).
The examiner argues that appellants have not shown that
the process of Fan’s example 1 produces a dissolved oxygen
concentration of above 100 ppb (answer, page 12). In Fan’s
example 1 the emulsion is thoroughly deoxygenated by stirring
it under vacuum for 10 minutes and subsequently breaking the
vacuum with nitrogen, and repeating this procedure two more
times (col. 8, lines 27-30). In Fan’s example 26 a thin-film
devolatilizer operating under a vacuum of 200 mm of mercury
and a nitrogen atmosphere is used to deoxygenate the emulsion
6
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