Appeal No. 1997-1135
Application 08/375,196
failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the
subject matter
which appellant regards as the invention. Claims 1, 3-9, 11- 2
13 and 22-27 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Shiba or Carey, Jr., in view of Keuchel.3
OPINION
We have carefully considered all of the arguments
advanced by appellant and the examiner and agree with
appellant that the aforementioned rejections are not well
founded. Accordingly, we reverse these rejections.
Claim interpretation
Appellant’s claims require that the nonwoven fabric
comprises “single polymer conjugate fibers”. These are “melt-
2 In the answer the examiner rejected claims 22 and 23 on
the ground that they are indefinite because they depend from
canceled claim 21 (answer, page 6). After appellant submitted
an amendment (filed October 17, 1996) in response to this new
ground of rejection, the examiner did not repeat the rejection
in the supplemental answer (page 3). Thus, the record
indicates that the examiner has withdrawn this rejection in
view of this amendment. See the related remand at the end of
this opinion.
3The rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 112, second paragraph,
in the final rejection (page 2) are withdrawn in the
examiner’s answer (page 7).
3
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