Appeal No. 2000-0855
Application No. 08/597,377
elasticity and we can find no such disclosure. Absent any
teaching in the Proxmire patent of an elastic band having at
least two regions with different bonding patterns and
different elasticity, we cannot support the examiner’s
rejection of claims 5 and 17.
The rejection of claims 5 and 17, therefore, will not be
sustained.
Claim 12 requires that at least one of the material
layers comprises one of the casing layers. See, for example,
the appellants’ Figures 4 through 6. In support of the
rejection, the examiner cites Proxmire’s teaching at column 9,
lines 51-54, that the laminar fabric comprising the leg 102
and waist 104 elastic members and the outer cover 12 of the
diaper may be formed of the same elastomeric fabric. However,
as the appellants correctly point out (main brief, p. 27),
this teaching of Proxmire appears to suggest that the material
used to form the leg and waist elastic members may be a
material similar to that used to form the outer cover 12. We
also note that Proxmire
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