Appeal No. 1997-3485
Application No. 08/431,734
antistatic agent, a particular dye and “an acid having a pKa
less than 4.2 in an amount equal to at least 0.05 mole
equivalent of acid to 1 mole equivalent of base in [the] basic
antistatic agent...” See claims 1 and 2. The acid is used to
prevent or minimize reaction between the basic antistatic
agent and the particular dye so that the bleaching of the dyes
in solution is minimized. See specification, page 5, lines 6-
10 and page 7, lines 9-14.
As evidence of obviousness of the claimed subject matter
under 35 U.S.C. § 103, the examiner relies on the combined
disclosures of Gomez, Helland, Ishihara and Habu. The
examiner finds (Answer, pages 4, 5 and 7) that Gomez describes
a photographic or photothermographic element comprising a
support and an antihalation coating having the claimed dye and
an antistatic agent described in U.S. Application Ser. No.
08/183,058 . See also abstract together with columns 13 and1
1Upon return of this application, the examiner is to
review the content of this application to determine what
antistatic agent is described and what problem it is expected
to cause in a photographic or photothermographic element. If
this application describes the claimed antistatic agent, with
some recognition of any bleaching problem caused by the
antistatic agent, the examiner is to determine whether the
patentability of the claimed subject matter is affected by the
3
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