Appeal No. 2000-0449
Application No. 08/636,614
Gossett teaches that it is old and well
known in the art to fixedly encase one
compartment within the other by overlapping the
compartments and sealing them at the edge where
the two compartments overlap, as illustrated in
Figure 1. The Gossett pack is designed to
prevent undue leakage of its ingredients during
either shipment, storage, or usage. It would
have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in
the art at the time the invention was made to
fixedly encase the first compartment of Stanley,
Jr. to the second compartment by overlapping the
compartments and sealing the edge as taught by
Gossett, to provide a pack specifically designed
to prevent undue leakage of its ingredients
during either shipment, storage, or usage.
Appellant argues, inter alia, that claim 1 requires that the
first compartment extend across the length of the second
compartment, and Stanley’s first compartment 11 does not do7
so (brief, pages 11 and 12). The examiner has not responded
to this argument.8
The first (inner) compartments 11 of Stanley and 2 of
Gossett are both shown as having a smaller length than the
length of their respective second (outer) compartments. We
7This limitation is in claim 1, part (B)(v), quoted
above. Although this part is so written that the antecedent
of "extending" could be either "first compartment" or "sealed
edge," we interpret the antecedent as "first compartment" when
we read the claim in light of appellant’s disclosure.
8See footnote 5, supra.
12
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