Appeal No. 2003-0845 Page 6
Application No. 09/689,818
approximately 0.5% by weight of the final composition, based on the inclusion of
100g of water and only 0.5 g of the copolymer emulsion in the final composition.
Example 4 appears to have the largest concentration by weight, as it contains 2g
of copolymer, but also contains 100g of water in the final composition. So, at
most, not considering the additional components of the final composition, the
copolymer would be present in a concentration of 2% by weight, well below the
10% or 15% required by the instant claims.
The rejection also looks to Hatfield to teach the selected concentration, as
well as the particular polymers required by the dependent claims. See
Examiner’s Answer, page 5. Hatfield teaches that:
When the polymer compositions of the present invention are
used in hairspray compositions, the concentration of copolymer in
the hairspray composition is typically from about 1 to 25 weight
percent, preferably from about 2 to 18 weight percent and more
preferably from about 3 to 15 weight percent of the hairspray
composition.
Id. at 5, lines 11-14.
The examiner relies on examples 38-46 of Hatfield to support the
proposition that one would have been motivated to modify the polymer
concentration of Dubeif to arrive at the claimed polymer concentration. Upon
review of the examples relied upon by the examiner, it is unclear what the
concentration of copolymer is used in Example 38, but examples 39-42 state
that:
The polymer composition of Example 9 was formulated in
accordance with the procedure of Example 38 to provide hair
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