Appeal No. 2005-1907 Page 9
Application No. 09/909,898
Appellants acknowledge that MacDonald describes mixing a thermoplastic
polymer having no ion exchange groups with a polymerizable monomer comprising a
vinylbenzyltrialkylammonium chloride (Brief, p. 7). That monomer is a close homolog to the
monomer of formula (2) recited in claim 5. Moreover, Tomoi indicates that anion exchangers
polymerized from the monomers of formula (2) have excellent heat durability (Tomoi, col. 3, ll.
41-51). Tomoi also indicates that the shapes of the anion exchangers are not particularly limited
and can include membrane-like shapes (Tomoi, col. 7, l. 59 to col. 8, l. 8). Under the
circumstances, there is a suggestion arising from within the prior art to use the monomer of
Tomoi in the process of MacDonald to form a heat durable membrane.
We conclude that the Examiner has established a prima facie case of obviousness with
respect to the subject matter of claims 5-9. A discussion of Terada is not required here.
The Rejection of Claim 10 over Terada, Tomoi, MacDonald and further in view of Akao or
Osterholtz or Sata or Saad or Chau
Claim 10 requires irradiation of a porous membrane-supporting material before or when
the polymer and monomer mixture is impregnated thereto. The Examiner finds that such
irradiation of the polymers of the membrane supporting materials was known in the art and that
it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to irradiate the membrane
supporting material of MacDonald to obtain the known effects (Answer, pp. 6-7).
With respect to claim 10, Appellants argue that the references additionally relied upon by
the Examiner to reject this claim “manifestly do not relate to an anion exchange resin membrane
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007