Appeal No. 2005-2540
Application No. 10/026,629
water-permeable walls. The article may be used to relieve pain
by applying the article to a sore part of an individual’s body.
Claims 1 and 13, which are reproduced below, are respectively
representative of the claimed article and its method of use for
relieving pain:
1. An article with cooling capability by water
desorption from a water-swollen gel comprising:
a polymer absorbent enclosed within a bag
delimited by a collapsible envelope having non-watertight
walls,
wherein said polymer absorbent is in particulate
form wherein each particle comprises a core of less cross-
linked polymer sequences for retaining absorbed water and a
shell of more cross-linked polymer sequences for retarding
diffusion of water from a particle to another during
desorption of absorbed water, and
wherein the amount of polymer particles enclosed
in the bag is in excess compared to the theoretical amount
that would be just required to fill up the bag when they are
in the full swollen state.
13. A method for relieving pain from a sore part of an
individual’s body with a cooling article comprising a
polymer absorbent enclosed within a bag delimited by a
collapsible envelope having non-watertight walls, wherein
said polymer absorbent is in particulate form wherein each
particle comprises a core of less cross-linked polymer
sequences for retaining absorbed water and a shell of more
cross-linked polymer sequences for retarding diffusion of
water from a particle to another during desorption of
absorbed water, said method comprising:
2
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