Appeal No. 1999-2633
Application 08/680,325
Hermann discloses an open cell foam substrate having pre-
formed active ingredient particles bonded thereto during the foam
polymerization process. The particles comprise small droplets of
an active ingredient, such as a cosmetic (see column 1, lines 15
through 25; column 9, lines 21 through 23; column 9, line 63,
through column 10, line 2), stored within an encapsulating film
of polymeric material, such as polyethylene or polypropylene (see
column 7, lines 16 through 22), which ruptures under selective
pressure to dispense the active ingredient. In some
applications, the particles can be distributed and bonded
throughout the foam substrate (see Figure 1 and column 10, line
56, through column 11, line 11), and in other applications the
particles may be bonded only to the surface area of the substrate
to form an exposed surface layer composed of the foam substrate
and the active ingredient particles (see column 8, line 66,
through column 9, line 35; and column 12, lines 5 through 42).
In proposing to combine Fujimoto and Hermann to reject
claims 5 through 12, the examiner concludes that
[i]t would have been obvious to the skilled artisan to
have fixed active particles, as taught in Hermann, to a
surface of the closed-cell puff taught in Fujimoto,
motivated by the desire to obtain a cosmetic puff which
exhibited good sanitary conditions and had
microcapsules containing personal care products limited
to just the surface of the foam substrate. While
Hermann is specific to the fact that a[n] open-celled
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