Appeal No. 2006-0930
Application No. 09/905,540
dip-condiment tub attached to the container.4 (FF21.) According
to the appellant (Table 1 of the specification at 6; FF22),
Snack-A-Dip® (Lightly Salted Tortilla Chips & Salsa) has a snack
piece average projected area of 1060 mm2 and a space efficiency
5 of 0.134 g/cm3.
Zimmerman, the other prior art evidence, is identified in
the appellant’s specification as describing “[a]n optimized
design of a curved snack piece to accomplish high packed
densities of a plurality of curved snack pieces...” in
10 accordance with the claimed invention. (Specification at 14,
lines 14-25; FF23.) Specifically, Zimmerman describes a
packaged container filled with overlapping snack pieces placed
therein, wherein the packed volumetric bulk density is greater
than about 10 x 10-5 g/mm3 to about 35 x 10-5 g/mm3 (about 0.1
15 g/cm3 to about 0.35 g/cm3). (¶0018 at 2; claim 14 at 10; FF24.)
Zimmerman teaches that snack pieces having the disclosed
structural and geometric shapes in a nested arrangement
(relative to prior art products in which the chips are randomly
packed) provide increased bulk density as well as allow
20 efficient dipping of condiment during use. (¶¶0002-0021 at 1-2;
4 French Patent No. 9912098 expressly teaches that the cell
or tub 3 is attached or linked to the container 2 by means of
20
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