Appeal No. 2002-0701
Application 09/201,269
Rejection of claims 23 and 24 under 35 U.S.C. § 103
over Puschak in view of Campbell
Claim 23
Puschak teaches that “[i]f desired, premature crosslinking
or gelling of the copolymer is induced by adding to the monomer
mix multi-ethylenically unsaturated monomers in the range of 0.1%
to 25%, by weight based on the weight of the copolymer” (col. 5,
lines 1-5). One of Puschak’s multiethylenically unsaturated
monomers is divinyl benzene (col. 5, line 8). The polymer in the
latex binder has a molecular weight of 500 to 5,000,000, more
preferably 3,000 to 500,000 (col. 5, lines 30-33).
Campbell teaches that “[p]olymerization of monomer mixtures
containing diethylenically unsaturated monomers is frequently
associated with formation of insoluble gels” (col. 7, lines 36-
38), and that an increase in weight average molecular weight and
polydispersity correlates with formation of insoluble gels
(col. 10, lines 3-4). The weight average molecular weights at
which there is gellation include values above 100,000 (col. 12,
lines 56-58). The polydispersities corresponding to insoluble
gel formation when the diethylenically unsaturated monomer is
divinyl benzene in a high amount (21.16-22.93 wt%) are above 15,
i.e., 25.75, 68.26 and 105.6 (col. 12, lines 55-67). In the
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