Appeal No. 2001-0676
Application No. 08/941,132
We find that Yasuyuki also teaches (page 2, lines 10-18) that
Natural rubber has been widely employed in
industrial articles such as automobile tires, belts and
adhesives and domestic articles such as gloves.
In addition to its excellent mechanical properties
as vulcanized rubber, natural rubber is much superior in
the raw rubber strength (green strength) to synthetic
rubber. Accordingly, natural rubber is excellent in
processing characteristics in kneading, sheeting and
various molding procedures. In the form of a latex,
natural rubber has a high gel strength at solidification
and thus can be easily formulated into a film, which
makes the natural rubber applicable to various products
including condoms, surgical gloves and diverse catheters.
We find that Yasuyuki further teaches (page 5, lines 10-19 and
27-31) that:
No such a natural rubber as the one according to the
present invention, from which proteins have been almost
completely eliminated, has been obtained hitherto. This
deproteinized natural rubber, which is substantially free
from any protein, is not only useful as a countermeasure
to the allergic reactions but also expected to be usable
as a material for providing highly refined products of
good qualities having characteristics different from
common natural rubber (for example, low water
absorptivity, electrical properties, low hysteresis loss,
colorless and transparent appearance) and suffering from
no lot-to-lot variation characteristic to natural
materials.
In addition, natural rubber tends to be hardened
during storage period (i.e., storage hardening), which
makes mastication for plasticizing necessary prior to the
use. It has been found out, however, that a natural
rubber from which proteins have been completely
eliminated would never undergo this phenomenon.
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