Appeal 2006-1924
Application 09/954,506
Concerning the Examiner’s obviousness rejection of claims 32, 34-41,
45, 48 and 49 over Rajala in view of Roessler and Justmann, Appellants
argue the claims together as a group. Thus, we select claim 32 as
representative of these commonly rejected claims. Appellants do not
specifically argue that the Examiner’s proposed combination of the
references’ teachings, if made, would not result in a process corresponding
to the representative claim 32 process. Rather, Appellants contend that there
is no suggestion to combine the applied references. We disagree.
The Examiner relies on Rajala for teaching/suggesting a method for
manufacturing a refastenable absorbent garment wherein: (1) a base web is
moved in a first machine direction; (2) two strips of a web (fastener
material) are moved in a second direction; (3) the strips of fastener are cut to
form streams of first and second discrete parts, such as fastener members;
(4) the discrete parts (fastener members) of the first and second streams are
rotated in a manner corresponding to that recited in representative claim 32;
and (5) the rotated discrete parts (fastener members) are applied to the base
corresponding “Grounds of Rejection to be Reviewed on Appeal” section of
their Brief. Given the presentations in footnotes 1 and 3 of the Brief;
however, there is an obvious inconsistency here. In light of the
aforementioned footnotes in the Brief, we determine that Appellants have
presented all grounds of rejection for our review, albeit on the basis of
arguments made for the patentability of the rejected independent claim(s)
from which they depend. Appellants are cautioned to include all contested
grounds of rejection (including those grounds only contested on the basis of
a separately rejected independent claim) in the “Grounds of Rejection to be
Reviewed on Appeal” section of any subsequent Briefs filed in other
appeals. Otherwise, unlisted grounds of rejection may be viewed as not
being before the Board with the consequences that could be associated with
such an omission.
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