Appeal No. 97-2963 Page 10
Application No. 08/284,728
Rejection based on Tracy
We will not sustain the examiner's rejection of claims 1 and
27 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Tracy in view
of Roessler, Lippert and Ahr.
Tracy discloses a diaper having a padded waistband. As shown
in Figures 2 and 4, the diaper 2 includes padded strips 50 to cover
the plastic waistline band from the inside to the outside of the
diaper. Tracy teaches (column 2, lines 39-54) that the padded
strips 50 are of soft material in the form of a strip of cotton or
other non-abrasive material which is bent over the waistline
portion 10 formed by border sections 40, 42 to protect the skin and
to provide an additional absorbent barrier to alleviate leakage.
The appellants argue (brief, pp. 17-19) that applied prior art
does not disclose or suggest an absorbent article having "an
outermost fibrous layer of substantially nonwettable, resilient,
non-elastomeric material" connected to overlie the polymer film of
the outer cover and having a substantially ungathered front
waistband. We agree. Once again, we see no teaching, suggestion
or motivation in the applied prior art (i.e., Tracy, Ahr, Lippert
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