Appeal No. 1999-0107
Application No. 08/700,427
Each sheet can comprise a single layer of a suitable water-
soluble or water-dispersible material such as polyvinyl alcohol
(see, for example, column 3, lines 51 through 65; and column 4,
lines 19 through 30).
Anticipation is established only when a single prior art
reference discloses, expressly or under principles of inherency,
each and every element of a claimed invention. RCA Corp. v.
Applied Digital Data Sys., Inc., 730 F.2d 1440, 1444, 221 USPQ
385, 388 (Fed. Cir. 1984). It is not necessary that the
reference teach what the subject application teaches, but only
that the claim read on something disclosed in the reference,
i.e., that all of the limitations in the claim be found in or
fully met by the reference. Kalman v. Kimberly Clark Corp., 713
F.2d 760, 772, 218 USPQ 781, 789 (Fed. Cir. 1983), cert. denied,
465 U.S. 1026 (1984).
The examiner’s determination that the sealed container
recited in claim 1 is anticipated by Gouge ‘601 is well taken.
The recess which contains component 5 in Gouge’s Figure 1
embodiment constitutes a sealed container composed of a wall
comprising two superimposed, single layer, homogenous and water-
soluble polymer films 4 and 1. These films are separable without
tearing to the same extent the appellant’s films are. Similarly,
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