Appeal No. 2004-1174
Application No. 09/470,793
the absorbing panels. Appellant also does not dispute that Abuto
discloses and claims that the absorbent material is incorporated
into personal care products, such as feminine hygiene products
(see columns 8 and 9). It is appellant's contention that whereas
appellant claims a disposable sanitary napkin, a specific article
of manufacture, "the absorbent material disclosed in Abuto is not
an absorbent article, it may be used to form an absorbent
article" (page 4 of Brief, second paragraph). Appellant
maintains that "the Figures 1-4 in Abuto are not products, but in
fact are components that may be incorporated into a final
absorbent article" (id.).
We are not persuaded by appellant's argument because we
concur with the examiner that Abuto fairly describes a disposable
sanitary napkin within the meaning of § 102. We are satisfied
that claims 8 and 9 of Abuto, which define a feminine hygiene
product as an article of manufacture, would be interpreted by one
of ordinary skill in the art as describing a disposable sanitary
napkin having the claimed structure. In our view, when the
reference is considered as a whole, it is not necessary for a
finding of description under § 102 that Abuto does not use the
terminology recited by appellant, i.e., disposable sanitary
napkin. As for appellant's argument that "there is no
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