Appeal No. 2000-0855 Application No. 08/597,377 together through said perforations portions of the layers of at least partially meltable material located opposite said perforations by heat fusion so that the layers are bonded to one another through the perforations as recited in claim 1, but the examiner acknowledges that Proxmire does not teach the step of passing a uniformly stretched elastic band over a bonding roller having a pattern of raised portions as called for in claim 3. Nevertheless, the examiner concludes that the step recited in claim 3 is a matter of engineering design choice. However, the case the examiner relies upon (answer, p. 6), In re Kuhle, 526 F.2d 553, 188 USPQ 7 (CCPA 1975), does not support the examiner’s position. In Kuhle, "the applicant failed to set forth any reasons why the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art would result in a different function or give unexpected results." In re Chu, 66 F.3d, 292, 298-9, 36 USPQ2d 1089, 1094 (Fed. Cir. 1995). Here, the appellants explain (main brief, p. 31) that “the formation of the perforations in the elastic band is 18Page: Previous 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007