Appeal No. 98-2812
Application 08/473,054
least one of the elastic strands... [has] greater elastic power than at least one other elastic strand,” as set
forth in claim 1 on appeal. As for independent claim 12, appellants urge (brief, pages 5-6) that Zehner
‘453 is “completely silent with respect to an elasticized cover being unadhered to an internal barrier
structure,” as is required in the last lines of appellants’ claim 12 on appeal.
It is the examiner's position regarding claim 1 on appeal that at least one of the elastic strands
(56) of Zehner will “inherently” have greater elastic power than at least one of the other strands. More
specifically, on page 4 of the answer, the examiner has asserted that it can be seen from Figure 4 of
Zehner ‘453 that the inner elastic member (presumably the one closest to the centerline of the diaper)
has a greater radius and is therefore stretched further than the outer elastic member, thereby imparting
greater elastic power to the inner elastic member. Appellants argue (brief, page 4-5) that Zehner ‘453
does not disclose or teach elastic strands of different elastic power as that term is defined on page 18 of
the specification and as required in claim 1 on appeal. In addition, appellants disagree with the
examiner’s assumption that the elastic members (56) of Zehner ‘453 have differing radii of curvature,
pointing out that such a feature is at best undeterminable from Figure 4 of Zehner ‘453 and is
completely without support in the specification of that reference.
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