Appeal No. 2000-0606
Application No. 08/755,435
Turning finally to rejection (3), representative claim 3
depends indirectly from claim 1 and further requires that the
stacking means comprises a staging means proximate the
dispensing throat and that the staging means comprises at
least two curved bumpers and a number of ribs defined on the
bumpers. The examiner's position, as expressed on page 4 of
the final rejection, is that
[t]o have the curved bumpers 30 and 34 of Downham
have a number of ribs on there [sic: their] surface
to aid in arresting movement of the napkins as they
approach the dispensing throat 21 would be obvious
in view of the teaching of Winter et al. Note the
ribs 19 and column 2 lines 35-52 of Winter et al.
Winter discloses a dispenser for interfolded paper towels
having a bottom delivery opening. The ribs 19 alluded to by
the examiner are reinforcement or friction means in the form
of corrugations along the sides of the dispenser which act to
support the stack of paper towels and take the weight of the
stack off the lowermost sheet. We see nothing in the
teachings of Winter which would have suggested to one of
ordinary skill in the art at the time of appellants' invention
provision of ribs on the upper adaptor 30 or the rounded lower
portions 34 of shoulders 33 of the lower adaptor 32 of
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