SERBUTOVIEZ’S CLAIM 5 AND 9 MASAYUKI
Ethoxylated Acrylate Monomer - Miscible in Ethoxylated Acrylate Monomer - Immiscible
a Liquid Crystalline Material in a Liquid Crystalline Material
Monomer - Immiscible in a Liquid Crystalline Oligomer - Miscible in a Liquid Crystalline
Material Material
The rejection recognizes that Masayuki fails to teach a mixture of a miscible ethoxylated
acrylate monomer with an immiscible monomer. The rejection states that one skilled in the art
would have been motivated to arrive at the claimed subject matter as:
Masayuki teaches that the advantage of the mixture of acrylates; one readily
miscible (of good compatibility) and one poorly miscible (weak interaction) with
the liquid crystal is that it allows for good control of phase separation structure of
the polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC)(section [0013]). Therefore a mixture
of an ethoxylated acrylate monomer, which is instead readily miscible with the
liquid crystal, coupled with an acrylate monomer, which is instead poorly miscible
with the liquid crystal, is the result of routine experimentation by one of ordinary
skill in the art at the time the invention was made, within the realm of invention of
Masayuki, because it follows the same principle of a miscible/immiscible acrylate
mixture which results in good control of the phase separation structure of the
polymer dispersed liquid crystal.
(Examiner’s Answer, p. 4, bracketed citation in original). The rejection further states that the
selection of Serbutoviez’s claimed liquid crystalline material is obvious as:
Appellant is respectfully apprised that when the ethoxylated acrylate
monomer/other monomer mixture, wherein the ethoxylated acrylate monomer is
immiscible with the other monomer, remains the same, then changing the liquid
crystal in order to obtain an improvement in other optical properties, is within the
scope of routine experimentation. The liquid crystal may not have the same
miscibility properties as the liquid crystal in the example of Masayuki (MJ90657
by Merck) but can be made to have the same miscibility properties of the
ethoxylated acrylate of Masayuki, in order to take advantage of the principle of
using a miscible monomer/immiscible monomer mixture wherein the ratio of
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