Appeal No. 2004-1230
Application No. 09/925,232
said cap by frangible bridges, said tamper-indicating ring
including a plurality of tabs hingedly interconnected to an inner
surface of said ring, said tabs serving to sever said bridges as
said cap is removed, the improvement comprising: said tabs being
of substantially equal width along the periphery of said ring,
and being separated from each other by spaces at least equal to
the width of said tabs; said ring having first and second
vertically-oriented scores to enable splitting of said ring, said
scores being spaced from each other by a distance at least equal
to the width of said tabs.
The examiner relies upon the following reference as evidence
of obviousness:
Mori et al. (Mori) 4,565,295 Jan. 21, 1986
Appellant's claimed invention is directed to a tamper-
indicating threaded closure of the type used to seal a container.
The closure includes a threaded cap and a tamper-indicating ring.
The ring splits at at least one point on its periphery when the
closure is removed from the container. The ring also includes a
plurality of tabs which engage corresponding beads on the
container, and the ring is interconnected to the threaded cap by
frangible bridges that are severed when the cap is removed.
Appellant's asserted improvement over this admittedly known
tamper-indicating threaded closure is positioning first and
second vertically-oriented scores on the ring, which enable the
splitting of the ring, such that the distance between the scores
is at least equal to the width of the tabs.
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