Appeal No. 1998-2065
Application 08/713,788
which is greater than said first diameter, said elastic
portion including an elastic ring and said plastic portion
surrounding at least a portion of said ring, said plastic
portion being formed of a material selected to stretch upon a
stretching of said elastic portion wherein said elastic
portion is elastically deformable and said plastic portion is
plastically deformable, said plastic portion including a non
elastic loop extension.
Claims 1 and 2 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
being unpatentable over U.S. Patent No. 5,232,118 to Samuel.
As explained by the examiner,
Samuel discloses everything except the fibrous
material connected to the elastic element. An
elastic element with fibrous material attached is
nothing more than “apparel elastic.” It would have
been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at
the time the invention was made to substitute
apparel elastic for Samuel’s elastic element 20
because apparel elastic and element 20 are
equivalent elements which perform the same function
[examiner’s answer, Paper No. 10, page 3].
Claims 6, 7 and 9 through 16 stand rejected under 35
U.S.C. § 112, first paragraph, as being based on a
specification which fails to provide “an adequate written
description of a loop element having an elastic portion and a
plastic portion. It is not clear what the structures of these
two elements are or how or where they are attached”
(examiner’s answer, page 3).
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