Appeal No. 2006-1769
Application No. 09/784,292
material’ is a term of art that is understood by those skilled in the art
to refer to an article that is used for wiping a wearer’s skin during the
changing of a soiled absorbent garment.” (Appellants’ Reply Brief, p.
4).
We affirm the Examiner’s rejection in view of the usage of the
term “wipe material” in the specification. We determine the scope of
the claims in patent applications by giving claims their broadest
reasonable construction in light of the specification, as it would be
interpreted by one of ordinary skill in the art. Phillips v. AWH Corp.,
415 F.3d 1303, 1316, 75 USPQ2d 1321, 1329 (Fed. Cir. 2005).
The only discussion of a “wipe material” in the specification is
as follows,
In an alternative embodiment of the
invention, the side panels 34 can include a
wipe material, or material that renders the
side panels 34 suitable for use as wipes.
Thus, when a care giver [sic, caregiver]
changes a wearer’s disposable absorbent
garment, the side panels 34 can be used as
wipes rather than requiring a separate
package of wipes.
(Specification, p. 31, lines 6-9).
We find that based on this description the term “wipe material”
would be interpreted by one skilled in the art to mean any material
that
-16-
Page: Previous 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007