Appeal No. 97-4161
Application 08/397,408
Bauernfeind and the “pin-like displacements” comprise areas
94. Apparently conceding that the reference fails to disclose
or teach the claimed “35 to 400 pin-like displacements per
inch” and that the pillow-like areas contain “from 1 to 100 of
the pin-like displacements,” the examiner takes the position
that these values would have been discoverable by the exercise
of routine skill in the art (Answer, page 4).
A major difference between the claimed subject matter and
that taught by the reference is that the sequence of steps is
reversed. In independent claim 1, the second step is “passing
the absorbent web having the preparatory base pattern
impressed in step (a) [the pin-like pattern] through a second
pair of embossing rollers” (emphasis added), that is, the
“pin-like” embossing must come first. In contradistinction,
in the reference, the pattern which the examiner has
designated to be pin-like must be applied after the other
embossing pattern, or else the inventive method will not be
operative. In independent claim 11, a first pair of rollers
impresses a “preparatory base pattern” on the web, and second
rollers impress a second pattern which defines areas in which
a specified range of the pin-like displacements of the first
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