Appeal No. 1997-0427
Application 08/296,427
Claims 1 through 20 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103. As evidence of
obviousness, the examiner relies upon Akemi. We reverse.
Discussion
The claims on appeal are directed to a medical adhesive sheet and a method for
making the sheet. The sheet comprises a support having a laminate structure which
comprises a non-porous sheet and a porous sheet and a specified pressure-sensitive
adhesive layer. Importantly, the claims require that the porous sheet is embedded within
the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer so that the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer
reaches the laminate interface between the non-porous sheet and the porous sheet.
The examiner has correctly determined that Akemi describes a medical adhesive
sheet which comprises a support having a laminate structure comprising a non-porous
sheet and a porous sheet and a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer which can contain the
components specified in the claims on appeal. The examiner has also correctly
determined that Akemi describes adhering the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer to the
porous sheet side of the laminate structure.
Given these facts, one would expect that the examiner's statement of the rejection in
the Examiner's Answer would focus on why it would have been obvious to one of ordinary
skill in the art to embed the porous sheet of the laminate structure of Akemi within the
pressure-sensitive adhesive layer of the reference so that the pressure-sensitive adhesive
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