Ex Parte Price - Page 13

                Appeal 2007-4310                                                                             
                Application 10/950,830                                                                       
                specification that indicates that the single scrim layer limitation should be                
                read out of the claims as a grammatical accident or as an insubstantial                      
                superfluity.  Moreover, the Examiner has not indicated that Mangum                           
                describes or suggests skid-resistant pads having only a single layer of scrim.               
                Instead, the Examiner argues that the claims read on multi-scrim skid-                       
                resistant pads.  The Examiner does not rely on Sobonya or Jupina for                         
                teachings or suggestions of single-scrim skid-resistant pads.  Accordingly,                  
                the rejections of claims 18 and 19 under § 103(a) are REVERSED.                              
                      We consider next the "coverage" limitations in the independent                         
                claims, which are reproduced here for convenient reference (emphasis                         
                added):                                                                                      
                            Claims 1 and 19 require that the foamed latex resin be                           
                      "discontinuous on the scrim, such that at least a portion of the scrim                 
                      fibers is visible on the second major surface"; whereas                                
                            Claim 18 requires that the foamed latex resin provide                            
                      "discontinuous coverage of the scrim fibers on the second major                        
                      surface."                                                                              
                The difference in wording implies that resin that is "discontinuous on the                   
                scrim" is distributed differently from resin that is "discontinuous on the                   
                scrim fibers."  CAE Screen Plates, Inc. v. Heinrich Fiedler GMBH & Co.                       
                KG, 224 F.3d 1308, 1317, 55 USPQ2d 1804, 1810 (Fed. Cir. 2000) ("In the                      
                absence of any evidence to the contrary, we must presume that the use of                     
                these different terms in the claims connotes different meanings.") (citation                 
                omitted).  This impression is strengthened by the disclosure, which indicates                
                that "[i]n one embodiment, the foamed resin . . . partially covers a second                  


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