Appeal No. 2004-0369 Page 5
Application No. 09/822,704
cannot agree that the Examiner has met that burden. While the Examiner states that there is no
guidance in the specification for modifying the surfaces of the microparticles and microspheres,
the portions of the specification cited by Appellants do provide guidance. These portions of the
specification state that modification can be accomplished by static development or attachment of
chemical groups. The Examiner provides no reason to doubt the objective truth of these
statements in the specification and such a general discussion of the method can satisfy the
enablement requirement. See In re Marzocchi, 439 F.2d 220, 223, 169 USPQ 367, 369 (CCPA
1971) and In re Wright, 999 F.2d 1557, 1561, 27 USPQ2d 1510, 1513 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
Obviousness
The Examiner rejects all the claims as obvious over the combination of Dupius, Hinks
and Allec.
Dupuis describes a composition containing thickening and/or gelling polymers (Dupuis,
col. 1, ll. 40-41) and an aqueous carrier (Dupuis, col. 1, ll. 54-55; col. 4, ll. 51-58). The
composition can be used as rinse-out or leave-in hair products including products to maintain
hairstyle (Dupuis, col. 5, ll. 51-67). The products have good fixing properties (Dupuis, col. 1, ll.
45-47). In addition, to water-soluble or water-swellable polymer and aqueous carrier, the
composition of Dupuis may contain adjuvants that are common in the cosmetics field such as
other standard gelling agents and/or thickners (Dupuis, col. 5, ll. 23-25). Hinks indicates that
Laponite XLG and Laponite XLS were standard gelling and thickening agents in the cosmetics
field (Hinks, p. 2, ll. 15-24). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use
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