Appeal No. 2000-0287 Page 6
Application No. 08/663,300
from our reading of the appellant's specification as a whole that "a biased direction" means
nothing more than the direction in which the non-woven fabric sheet is elongatable (adapted to
be elongated). Therefore, the omission of the adjective "biased" to describe that direction does4
not render the limitation "adapted to be elongated by more than 100% in one direction" in
claims 1, 16 and 19 more broad than the language at issue in the specification. As for claims
13 and 17, while the terminology "in said one direction" lacks clear antecedent basis in the
claims, we are of the opinion that one of ordinary skill in the art reading the claim as a whole
would understand that the elastic composite would be stretched in a direction in which both the
non-woven fabric sheet and the elastic sheet are elongatable or stretchable and that "said one
direction" thus refers to such direction. Consequently, for the same reasons discussed above5
with regard to claims 1, 16 and 19, we consider the omission of the term "biased" from claims
13 and 17 to be inconsequential to the scope of the claims. In any event, the examiner has not
advanced any reasoning in support of the contention that the appellant's disclosure is insufficient
to have enabled one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention recited in these
claims without undue experimentation.
4We recognize that "biased" is frequently used in the textiles field to denote a direction inclined at an
angle with respect to both the machine direction and cross direction of the fabric, in addition to its other usage to
denote elongatability. However, in this instance, given the appellant's disclosure (the substitute specification, page
12; original specification, page 7) that the most suitable known non-woven fabric for use in the present invention
preferably has high elongatability in the machine direction (MD) or in the cross-direction (CD), the term "biased"
does not appear to be used in the context of an angle inclined with respect to both the MD and CD.
5While we do not consider this lack of antecedent basis to be of such a nature as to render the scope of the
claims indefinite, it is deserving of correction in the event of further prosecution before the examiner.
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