Appeal No. 1999-0981
Application 08/787,895
further points to, inter alia, Bossaert as an example that “hydrocarbon resin” is “also a term of art
in the patent literature” (id.).
The examiner does not accept appellant’s contentions that the claim language specifies a
material known in the art, and points out that the range of molecular weights disclosed in
Bossaert, “usually less than 5000, preferably less than 1000, for example 500 to 1000 (column 1,
lines 65+) . . . is contradictory to the definition given in the Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and
Engineering, which discloses hydrocarbon resins having a molecular weight of usually below
2000” (answer, pages 8-9).
We have found a definition similar to that quoted from “Whittington’s” in McGraw-Hill
Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms:4
hydrocarbon resins Brittle or gummy materials prepared by the polymerization of
several unsaturated constituents of coal-tar, rosin or petroleum . . . . [Page 967.]
We further find that Bossaert discloses low molecular weight resins, “usually less than
5000” molecular weight, which include “hydrocarbon resins” among “[s]uitable resins which can
subsequently be hydrogenated,” wherein
Examples of hydrocarbon resins are polymers of coke oven gas, cracked naphtha, gas
oil and terpene oil.
Particularly preferred hydrocarbon resins are hydrogenated petroleum reins. These
are usually prepared by catalytically hydrogenating a thermally polymerized steam
cracked petroleum distillate fraction, especially a fraction having a boiling point of
between 20° and 280° C. These fractions usually are of compounds having one or
more unsaturated cyclic rings in the molecule, such as cyclo dienes, cycloalkenes and
indenes. It is also possible to hydrogenate resins produced by the catalytic
polymerization of unsaturated hydrocarbons. [Col. 1, line 63, to col. 2, line 20.]
Based on this record, we determine that one of ordinary skill in this art would have
recognized the “low molecular weight” polymeric material required by claim 14 as specified by
the term “hydrocarbon resin” as further characterized in the claim and the specification by the
method and “relatively impure monomer” materials from which it is made. See generally, In re
Thorpe, 777 F.2d 695, 697, 227 USPQ 964, 966 (Fed. Cir. 1985). Indeed, it is apparent from the
recitation of the monomeric starting materials in the dictionary definitions and as further seen
from Bossaert that one of ordinary skill in this art would have known that “hydrocarbon resins”
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