Appeal No. 1997-2194 Page 14
Application No. 08/195,018
(at least two years). This tight sealing must also be
maintained when the container is opened often (typically
50 times) in order to remove individual test strips.
In order to absorb the moisture which unavoidably
gets in during the opening and closing of the test strip
container, it must contain a sufficient amount of a
drying agent.
Sacherer further teaches (column 3, lines 23-37) that the
stopper (3) is made of a synthetic resin, preferably
polyethylene or polypropylene and that the drying agent cell
(6) is covered with a water vapour-permeable cardboard disc
(10).
The examiner determined (answer, pp. 4-5) that claims 1
to 3, 6 and 7 differ from Sacherer by specifying a specific
surface tension range (i.e., a surface tension for wetting
which is smaller than 70 mN/m) and that the cardboard of
Sacherer (i.e., cardboard disc (10)) would appear to encompass
the claimed surface tension range. The appellants argue
(brief, pp. 11-13) that the cardboard disc (10) of Sacherer
would not encompass the claimed surface tension range.
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