Appeal 2007-0176
Application 11/050,553
detergent compound and fabric treatment composition. As noted by the
Examiner, Appellants attach no criticality to adding the cationic polymeric
fabric-softening boosting component to the mixture of clay and silicone.
Indeed, the Summary of Appellants’ invention set forth in the Specification
describes the charged polymeric fabric-softening boosting component as an
optional component. While the Specification, at page 17, discloses that the
boosting component is preferably contacted to the clay and silicone for
improving the fabric-softening benefit performance of the auxiliary
composition, the Specification fails to report any evidence of unexpected
results. In any event, it is our view that WO ‘927 fairly teaches an integral
admixture of fabric treatment composition and detergent composition
comprising guar gum and other additives.
Regarding separately argued claims 15, 16, 24, and 25, which claims
recite various properties of the guar gum, such as charge density and
molecular weight, Appellants do not refute the Examiner’s reasoning that
commercially available guar gum would fall within the broad ranges for the
properties recited in the claims. Rather, Appellants make the same argument
that the reference does not teach such guar gum in the auxiliary composition.
Appellants make no argument that the commercially available guar gum
used in the detergent composition of WO ‘927 does not possess the charge
density, weight average molecular weight, and average degree of cationic
substitution that fall within the claimed ranges. Also, the preferences
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Last modified: November 3, 2007