Appeal No. 1998-2811
Application 08/670,137
concluded (see pages 5 and 6 in the answer) that it would have
been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide
the Gerstenberger pad with an outer cotton covering as taught
by Nelson. Nelson discloses an absorbent pad consisting of a
filler body 10 of highly absorbent fibrous material and a
tubular fabric casing 11 having elongated edges joined by
sewing. The fabric of the casing preferably is gauze loosely
woven from threads of vegetable fiber such as cotton (see page
2, column 1,
lines 8 through 10), but may be any suitable soft, flexible,
knit or braided absorbent material (see page 2, column 2,
lines 15 through 19).
Even if the combination of Gerstenberger and Nelson
proposed by the examiner were assumed to be proper, it would
not meet the limitations in claims 2 (via parent claim 1) and
9 requiring the web covering to be “non-woven.” Thus, the
combined teachings of Gerstenberger and Nelson would not have
suggested an absorbent pad comprising a web covering having
all of the attributes required by claims 2 and 9.
6
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