Appeal No. 2000-0487 Page 3
Application No. 08/913,380
OPINION
Having carefully considered each of appellants* arguments
set forth in the brief and reply brief, appellants have not
persuaded us of reversible error on the part of the examiner.
Accordingly, we will affirm the examiner’s rejections for
substantially the reasons set forth by the examiner in the
answer. We add the following for emphasis.
Representative claim 11 calls for water soluble nonionic
polyurethanes obtained as the reaction product of a) organic
polyisocyanates, b) water-soluble polyalkylene glycols containing
at least 70 weight percent glycol groups and c) polyhydric
branched alcohols. Ranges of equivalent ratios of reactant
component (b) relative to component (c) and components (b) plus
(c) relative to component (a) are specified in the representative
claim.
Because appellants claim a product in terms of the process
for making same, we determine the appealed claims are in product-
by-process form. Thus, the patentability of the claimed
invention is determined based on the product itself, not on the
method of making it. See In re Thorpe, 777 F.2d 695, 697, 227
USPQ 964, 966 (Fed. Cir. 1985) (“If the product in a product-by-
process claim is the same as or obvious from a product of the
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