Appeal No. 2003-1914
Application No. 09/485,989
has properly noted that the concentration limitation present in
claim 1 is pertinent to only the recited nonionic alkoxylated
surfactants, but does not require that the total concentration of
all alkoxylated surfactants be less than 10% by weight of the
composition. Appellants have not addressed this position of the
examiner, nor the examiner's citation of Example 2b of the
reference which contains 5% of alkoxylated xylenol and 5% of an
alkoxylated amide, which amide "is not recited in applicant's
Markush group of nonionic surfactants" (page 6 of Answer, first
paragraph).
We now turn to the examiner's rejection over EP '052.
Appellants contend that "[t]here is no teaching or suggestion in
the description of EP '052 that the resulting particulate
softening dispersions are clear and/or translucent nor does the
reference include any suggestion or motivation for modifying the
disclosed dispersions" (page 4 of Brief, second paragraph). We
agree with the examiner's rationale, however, that since the
present specification does not provide a definition of the term
"clear," it is reasonable to interpret the term as meaning
"colorless," "translucent," and "transparent." Since
compositions II and III of the reference "contain about 5-8% of
colorless ingredients dissolved or dispersed in sub-micron sized
-5-
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007