Appeal No. 1998-2113
Application No. 08/685,478
container and not opposed sides@ (brief, page 10). This
argument is not persuasive.
Claim 19 does not recite that individual elements or
strips of the reinforcing structure are each attached at
opposites ends to opposed interior faces of the inner
package. Instead, this claim refers to the reinforcing
structure, generally. When this claim language is given
its broadest reasonable interpretation (See In re Zletz,
893 F.2d 319, 321, 13 USPQ2d 1320, 1322 (Fed. Cir. 1989)),
it does not distinguish from the arrangement of the
internal reinforcing structure shown in Figure 2 of the
Netherlands reference. In this regard, two diagonally
opposed reinforcing strips, such as the strips in the lower
right hand corner and the upper left hand corner in Figure
2 of the Netherlands reference, collectively define a
reinforcing structure that attaches to opposed walls of the
sack. In particular, the wall structure defining the lower
right hand corner of the sack opposes the wall structure
defining the upper left hand corner of the sack. For these
reasons, we will sustain the ' 103 rejection of claim 19,
and we will also sustain the ' 103 rejection of claim 21
which, as noted supra, stands or falls with claim 19.
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