Appeal No. 2002-1222
Application 09/049,908
The only apparatus components required in appealed claim 25 are unspecified electric
drive means that must be used with unspecified apparatus components to unwind parent rolls in
steps (1), (3), (4), (7) and (8). In this respect, we find no specific definition of “electric drive
means” in the specification and thus reasonably interpret this term to include any electric drive
motor means that can be operatively associated with and control any apparatus component(s) that
can perform the step of unwinding a parent roll, such as the apparatus components in the written
description at, e.g., pages 2-7 and 12-14, and FIGs. 2 and 5, including “motors 34,” of the
specification. See In re Donaldson Co., 16 F.3d 1189, 1195, 29 USPQ2d 1845, 1950 (fed. Cir.
1994) (en banc). The rolls defining a finishing unit nip can be those of, inter alia, an embossing
unit as in appealed claim 26. We interpret the phrase “substantially continuous impact” to “refer
to process that structurally modify the surface characteristics of the web . . . and that form a
joined web for rewinding purposes when two webs from different parent rolls are processed
simultaneously” in keeping with the definition that appellants provide in the written description
in the specification (page 6).
Appealed claim 29 modifies steps (4) and (5) of appealed claim 25 by specifying that the
leading end portion of the second tissue web being unwound from the second parent roll is
transported to the finishing unit using a thread-up conveyor. Appellants disclose that such an
apparatus component can comprise “a vacuum means operably associated with an endless screen
belt means” in the specification (page 3). The use of the open-ended term “comprising” as a
transitional term and in various claim clauses opens appealed claims 25 and 29 to include
methods which encompass additional steps and apparatus components. See In re Baxter, 656
F.2d 679, 686-87, 210 USPQ 795, 802-03 (CCPA 1981) (“As long as one of the monomers in the
reaction is propylene, any other monomer may be present, because the term ‘comprises’ permits
the inclusion of other steps, elements, or materials.”).
We find that prima facie Anderson would have disclosed to one of ordinary skill in this
art a continuous method of finishing a soft tissue web (e.g., col. 1, lines 39-40 and 45-46, and
col. 3, lines 7-8) in an embossing nip which includes at least one splicing step, comprising at
least partially unwinding a first web 1 by a drive means not illustrated in the drawings, from first
parent roll 11 and transporting first web 1 to embossing nip 6 formed by rolls 13 and 14, which
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