Appeal No. 96-4102
Application 08/500,421
The claimed invention is directed to a tear-open container
formed of tear-resistant material. The ends of the container
have heat-sealed joints with at least one heat-sealed joint
having an elongated tear-propagating slit formed therein.
Claim 4, reproduced below is further illustrative of the
claimed subject matter.
4. A tear-open bag for containing a flowable material, said
bag being formed with a non-tearable heat-sealable synthetic
resin, said bag comprising opposite end portions at least one of
which is closed by means of an expanded planer [sic, planar] heat
seal joint, said bag being formed with angled corners at opposite
sides of said heat seal joint, and an elongated tear-propagating
slit extending through said heat seal joint and not extending to
the edges of the bag, said slit being wholly contained within
said heat seal joint, and said slit being oriented relative to
one of said corners so as to be operable, when manually stressed,
to propagate a tear line in the bag which is oblique relative to
said one corner so that said one corner can be manually torn away
from the remainder of the bag and thereby form a pouring spout in
the bag.2
The reference cited by the examiner as evidence of
anticipation and obviousness is:
Arcudi 3,809,220 May 7, 1974
The following rejections are on appeal:
Claim 4 has been rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(b) as being
clearly anticipated by Arcudi.
We have interpreted the claim expression “non-tearable” found in2
line 2 of claim 4 on appeal as directed to a tear-resistant material.
2
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