Appeal No. 98-1848
Application 08/500,781
Based on these special meanings, the transitional phrase
“consisting of” in line 1 of claim 21 is inconsistent with the
requirement found in the last two lines of the claim that the
application assembly thereof “is provided with an applicator
in accordance with claim 22.” This is so because claim 22 is
in the open “including” format and therefore does not exclude
the presence of other elements.
Another difficulty with claim 21 stems from the term
“application member” appearing in line 3 thereof. It is not
clear whether this application member is the same as, or
distinct from, the “application member” of the claim 22 device
incorporated by reference into claim 21. Additionally, the
term “the storage position” (claim 21, lines 3 to 4) lacks a
proper antecedent basis, such that it is not clear what
position constitutes the storage position. Also, it is not
clear what the word “it” (claim 21, line 5) refers to.
A last difficulty arises from claim 15, which depends
ultimately from claim 22. It is not understood how bristles
having slight corrugations over at least part of their length,
as required by claim 15, can define an applicator wherein “the
stem and the application member form a curve with a
-8-
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Last modified: November 3, 2007