Appeal No. 1998-2262
Application 08/745,303
Southwell does meet all of the limitations in independent
claim 64 except for those requiring the recited disposable
panty to include body elastic attached to the panty in a
stretched condition, positioned between the waist elastic and
the leg openings and extending circumferentially about the
panty such that the body elastic can stretch in the
circumferential direction when the panty is put on and retract
about the body of the wearer when released with the retractive
forces being distributed generally uniformly about the panty
to thereby closely conform the front and back body portions of
the panty to
the shape of the wearer’s body between the waist elastic and
the leg openings. The Southwell panty has no such body
elastic. Nonetheless, the examiner’s reliance on Kitaoka and
Watanabe to cure this deficiency is well founded.
Kitaoka discloses disposable underpants having body
elastic in the form of uniformly spaced elastic strands 9a, 9b
positioned over the entire area between a waist elastic 7 and
leg openings 3 and extending circumferentially about the panty
such that the body elastic can stretch in the circumferential
9
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