Appeal No. 2006-1670 Page 4
Application No. 10/336,729
auxiliary feather mattress” in paragraph 32 on page 11. With respect to the fourth item, we note
that paragraph 32 is so obtuse as to offer little in the way of description of the absorbent panel,
other than some indication that the panel may provide some degree of comfort.
To the extent that the term “padded” is understood in the broad sense of “stuffed, lined or
covered with a pad or padding [i.e., any soft material used to pad]” (Webster's New World
Dictionary, Third College Edition (Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1988)), we find that the above
sources of disclosure in the appellants’ original specification provide support for the recitation of
a “padded” panel. Consistent with the appellants’ underlying disclosure, we interpret a “padded”
panel to be any material in the bedding art described as being either absorbent, in the context of
absorbing bodily fluids, or soft so as to provide comfort. With this understanding, we shall not
sustain the examiner’s rejection of claims 27-52 under the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. § 112 as
lacking written description support.
We turn next to the rejection of claims 27-29, 31, 34-47 and 49-51 as being anticipated
by Ghanem. The appellants have not argued any of the claims included in this rejection
separately from the other claims so included. Therefore, in accordance with 37 CFR §
41.37(c)(1)(vii), we select claim 45 as the representative claim to decide the appeal of this
rejection, with claims 27-29, 31, 34-44, 46, 47 and 49-51 standing or falling therewith.
Ghanem discloses a quick change bed sheet set comprising a lower panel 12 for fitting
onto a mattress 10, an air permeable, absorbent, porous (col. 4, ll. 23-24) upper panel 16 and a
minor panel 24 for releasable attachment to the upper panel. The lower panel 12 is provided
with a fastener 14 that extends “around the perimeter of the lower panel” such that, when the
lower panel is fitted onto the mattress, the fastener 14 is “disposed about the periphery of the
mattress” (col. 3, first full para.). The upper panel 16 is formed with a fly 13 to overlay the
lower panel and has a first fastener 18 attached to the periphery thereof. The first fastener 18 “is
the cooperating opposite part of the fastener 14” (col. 3, l. 28). According to Ghanem, “[t]he
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