Appeal No. 1998-0408
Application No. 08/176,861
specific material in which the wristband is made,
the minimum force required to tear the wristband
completely, or the force which would jeopardize the
wearer of the wristband. In addition, since the
force required to tear the wristband completely
without jeopardizing the safety of a wearer may vary
for person to person depending on the size, age,
and/or physical condition of the wearer, the
positive recitation of the force which would
jeopardize the safety of the wearer in an amusement
park is indefinite.
In response, appellants argue on page 5 of the brief that
[i]t is not the magnitude of the force which is
significant, it is that the wristband be engineered
so that whatever the magnitude of the force turns
out to be (and safety standards may change from year
to year, and from children to adults) that the
wristbands tear completely if subjected to such a
force.
Claim 1 recites a strip of a first material "which is
tear resistant but will tear completely if subjected to a
force which would jeopardize the safety of the wearer in an
amusement park environment if it did not tear." We understand
this limitation to mean that the wristband strip will tear
completely if subjected to any force which would jeopardize
the safety of the wearer if it did not tear. An issue before
us in this appeal is whether appellants' claims, when read in
light of the underlying disclosure, apprise one of ordinary
skill in the art what degree of tear resistance (i.e., the
5
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