Appeal No. 2006-2413 Page 13
Application No. 10/250,412
where Izumi ‘807 discloses that it would have been suitable or desirable to have
substituted the predominantly positively charged polyelectrolytes required by the claims
for the single charge monomeric surfactants disclosed by Izumi ‘807. Because Izumi
‘807 discloses only monomeric compounds as cationic surfactant thickening agents, the
disclosure that the thickening agents may have a molecular weight of “at most 5,000”
would not, in our view, have led the skilled artisan to have used positively charged
polyelectrolytes in the disclosed cementitious mixtures.
Moreover, we do not see, and the examiner does not indicate, where either Izumi
‘316 or Burge teaches or suggests the suitability or desirability of including a
predominantly positively charged polyelectrolyte in the aqueous cementitious mixtures
of Izumi ‘807. Therefore, in our view, the examiner has not made out a case of prima
facie obviousness based on Izumi ‘807, even when viewed in light of Izumi ‘316 and
Burge. We reverse the obviousness rejection of claims 3-19, 21-23, 25-40, and 52-56
over Izumi ‘807, including the combination of Izumi ‘807 with Izumi ‘316 and Burge.
In rejecting the claims over Nadolsky, the examiner points out that “it is also old
in the art to add a surfactant to a concrete/cement composition because it is also a
conventional additive (see, for example, Izumi et al. 5,674,316, [sic, column 6?]
lines 26-36).” Answer, page 7. Thus, urges the examiner, “[e]ven if not anticipated, it
would have at least been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art because it[’]s old to
use an anionic surfactant . . . as a conventional additive in a thickening agent additive to
increase the viscosity of aqueous systems such as cement/concrete.” Id. at page 8.
The examiner summarizes his position by stating that “the addition of
conventional additives to cement can contain a negative charge and fall into the
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