Patent ID: 8177857

Claim:
A laundry composition comprising i) at least one laundry component comprising one or more anionic surfactant and one or more softening agent, wherein said softening agent comprises one or more cationic surfactant or one or more blend of an anionic surfactant with a water-soluble cationic polymer or a mixture thereof, and ii) at least one ampholytic polymer comprising, as polymerized units, a) 20% to 90% by weight, based on the solid weight of said ampholytic polymer, at least one cationic monomer, b) 10% to 70% by weight, based on the solid weight of said ampholytic polymer, at least one anionic monomer, and c) 0% to 90% by weight, based on the solid weight of said ampholytic polymer, at least one nonionic monomer; wherein the equivalent ratio of said monomer a) to said monomer b) is from 0.5:1 to 1.2:1; and wherein said ampholytic polymer has weight-average molecular weight of 50,000 or less.