Appeal No. 2001-2366 Page 4
Application No. 08/926,533
Independent claim 1 recites a method of improving the skin condition of a wearer
in an area covered by a treated absorbent article. The first three steps of the method
call for (a) the article to be applied to the wearer, (b) at least a portion of the skin care
composition carried by the article to be transferred to the wearer, and (c) the used
article then to be removed from the wearer. The fourth step of the method reads as
follows:
(d) repeating steps (a), (b) and (c) with one or more additional treated
articles with sufficient frequency to transfer a cumulative amount of the
skin care composition to the skin in the area covered by the treated
article, said cumulative amount being sufficient to improve skin condition
in the area covered by the treated absorbent article, relative to skin
covered by an untreated absorbent article that does not comprise the skin
care composition (emphasis added).
The phrase “sufficient frequency to transfer a cumulative amount of skin care
composition to the skin” does not appear in the original disclosure and, from our
perspective, guidance is not provided as to how frequently a new treated article must be
applied in order to fall within the scope of the claimed method. The only mention of the
frequency of replacing a used treated article with a new treated article is found on
pages 8 and 51-52 of the specification, where it is stated that continual use of treated
articles will “typically include changes every 3 to 4 hours during the day and a fresh
article before overnight sleep.” Considering an overnight sleep to be eight hours (1
article), and changing articles every three or four hours for the remaining sixteen hours
of the day (4 or 5 articles) then, according to the above guidelines, one of ordinary skill
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