Appeal No. 98-1945
Application 08/655,736
In reaching our conclusion on the obviousness issue
raised in this appeal, we have carefully considered
appellant’s specification and claims, the applied patents, and
the respective viewpoints of appellant and the examiner. As a
consequence of our review, we make the determination which
follows.
This panel of the board reverses the examiner’s rejection
of appellant’s claims under 35 U.S.C. 103, for the reasons set
forth below.
When we set aside what appellant has taught us in the
present application, it is at once apparent to us that, absent
impermissible hindsight, the applied references themselves
would not have been suggestive of the tampon device (claim 1),
the tampon applicator device (claim 4), the tampon device kit
(claim 10), and the method of reminding a tampon user that a
tampon has been used (claim 16).
We certainly comprehend each of the applied teachings.
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