Appeal No. 95-5027
Application 08/993,198
1531, 1532, 28 USPQ2d 1955, 1956 (Fed. Cir. 1993)), which is
established when the teachings of the prior art itself would
appear to have suggested the claimed subject matter to one of
ordinary skill in the art (see In re Bell, 991 F.2d 781, 783,
26 USPQ2d 1529, 1531 (Fed. Cir. 1993)).
Claims 14-18 stand rejected as being unpatentable over
Eckert or Endres. Claim 14 requires that there be a
transverse partition formed by “affixing together” the barrier
leg cuffs
“without an intermediate member therebetween,” such that the
article is divided into a front portion and a rear portion and
whereby fecal material deposited in the rear portion “is
obstructed from migrating to said front portion.” Contrary to
the examiner, our analysis of the folded article shown in
Figure 4 of Eckert is that the oppositely oriented folded
portions that define the barrier leg cuffs are not attached
directly together to form a transverse partition, as required
by the claim, in that an opening is shown to exist between
edges 10a and 10b. This being the case, two requirements of
the claim are not disclosed by Eckert. The examiner has not
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