Appeal No. 2004-0563
Application No. 09/975,747
and the expansion and contraction of the vagina, especially during physical activity, the
tampon can get lodged near the back of the vagina or rotated in such a manner that
the string is withdrawn into the vagina cavity. In fact, appellant characterizes this as a
serious problem affecting “thousands of women nationally each year” and requiring a
visit to a gynecologist to retrieve the lost tampon.
Looking at the totality of the circumstances, it is our opinion that the claimed
subject matter as a whole set forth in claims 20 and 22 on appeal would have been
obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art,
and that the nature of the problem to be solved essentially provides its own suggestion
to the knowledgeable artisan as to how to solve the problem, i.e., by providing extra
length for the tampon withdrawal string.
As the examiner has observed on page 4 of the answer, aside from urging that
Yeo itself does not specifically teach or suggest the length modification, appellant has
not otherwise addressed the examiner’s stated position and reasoning laying out why
one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make the withdrawal string
of Yeo’s tampon longer and of a length within the claimed range.
In light of the foregoing, we will sustain the examiner’s rejection of claims 20
and 22 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Yeo.
In addition, we make note of U.S. Patent No. 5,807,372 to Tammy Jo Balzar,
cited by appellant on page 2 of the specification. During any further prosecution of this
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