Appeal No. 1998-2817
Application No. 08/455,366
21 through 26 and 28 through 36) and to a closed loop waist
elastic system per se (claims 1, 3 through 7, 9 through 13, 15
through 18). An understanding of the claimed invention can be
derived from a reading of exemplary claim 1, which reads as
follows:
1. A closed loop waist elastic system for a disposable
absorbent pant comprising a chassis including a front panel, a
back panel, a crotch panel and an absorbent structure on said
crotch panel, said front panel and said back panel being
selectively joined to form a waist opening and a pair of leg
openings, said closed loop waist elastic system comprising:
an elongate sleeve member defining an elongate passage
therein, and being generally peripherally disposed about said
waist opening, and
an elongate elastic member disposed within said elongate
passage,
said closed loop waist elastic system having a maximum
magnitude of decay of less than about 76.98 grams in an
extension range of about 300 millimeters over the first three
cycles.4,5
The prior art references of record relied upon by the
examiner in rejecting the appealed claims are:
4 “Decay” is defined in the specification (p. 6) as “a loss of tension
at a specific extension over a selected number of cycles.”
5 A “cycle” is defined in the specification (p. 6) as “an extension of
an elastic member or elastic structure, and a retraction of the elastic member
or elastic structure following the removal of the force causing the
extension.” Technically, the language “the first three cycles” in each
independent claim lacks proper antecedent basis.
4
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