Appeal No. 2000-1339
Application 08/772,480
IV. The rejection of claim 12
Claim 12 depends ultimately from claim 1 and
requires a denim wicking material disposed around the
wicking applicator. As indicated above, the wicking
material disclosed by Robertson is an absorbent material
such as a carpet material and the wicking material
disclosed by Van Steen is a textile material. Although
neither of these references specifies denim as a wicking
material, the examiner nonetheless concludes that the use
of denim as the wicking material on Robertson’s wick
applicator would have been obvious to one of ordinary
skill in the art because “denim is a well known fabric
which would meet the requirement of the unspecified
material of Robertson and would provide the well known
benefits of being relatively cheap and durable” (answer,
page 7). The examiner’s finding that denim is a well
known, relatively cheap and durable material is
reasonable on its face and has not been disputed by the
appellant. Given this finding, the heavy duty nature of
Robertson’s exemplary carpet-like wicking material, the
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