Appeal No. 97-3289
Application 08/550,895
seams to the bottom plastic sheet, all of which are required
by claim 18.
The Walker patent also is directed to an air
mattress. In the embodiment shown in Figure 8, Walker
discloses walls made of an inner layer of plastic sheet 113
and an outer layer of “a soft fabric, such as cotton or a
synthetic fabric, bonded to the outside surface of layer 113"
(column 7, lines 21-30). We share the examiner’s view that
one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious
to bond a woven textile top sheet to the upper surface of the
Nail top plastic sheet, in view of the teaching of Walker.
Suggestion for such a modification is found in the self-
evident advantage of making the upper surface of a mattress
more comfortable for the user to rest upon than the bare
plastic of Nail, a feature which would have been known to the
artisan, as confirmed by the explicit teaching of Walker that
the fabric be “soft.”
Neither Nail nor Walker explicitly teaches that the
plastic sheets utilized should be “made with plasticizers,” as
is required by claim 18. However, the use of plasticizers in
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