Appeal No. 1997-4443
Application No. 08/246,019
vinylidene chloride and the remainder is at least one monoethylenically unsaturated
monomer copolymerizable therewith, excluding vinyl chloride.
With regard to appellants disclosure of prior art, appellants argue that the
combination does not teach a vinylidene chloride polymer composition containing a
particular glycerin ester present in an amount sufficient to provide the composition with
an oxygen transmission rate of less than about 9 cc-mil/100 in2-atm-day.
The examiner rebuts and states that appellants have not provided evidence to
factually distinguish over the applied art. (Answer, page 3). The examiner states that the
OTR of the film made from the composition of Yasumato, for example, would be
essentially the same. (Answer, page 3). The examiner also states that “saran polymers”
are known to be derived from vinylidene chloride copolymer, thus comonmers of vinyl
chloride, methyl arcylate, arcylonitrile, are considered equivalent.
Appellants, in their first reply brief, state that permeability is affected by the kind
and amounts of comonomer in the polymer, and refer to the publication entitled “Barrier
Properties”. Appellants state that table 9 in this publication shows that the permeability
of vinylidene chloride polymer to O2 increases as the amount of comonomer, such as
vinly chloride monmer increases and the amount of vinylidene chloride monomer
decreases. The table also shows that the kind of comonomer present in the polymer
affects permeability of the vinylidene chloride polymer. (First Reply Brief, pages 2-3).
Appellants conclude that vinyl chloride and acrylonitrile as well as the other
comonomers, are not equivalent with respect to their effects on the permeability
properties of the vinylidene chloride polymer.
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