Patent ID: 6972012

Claim:
A pant-like, refastenable, disposable absorbent article which defines a front waist region, a back waist region, a crotch region which extends between and connects the waist regions, a longitudinal direction and a lateral direction, the absorbent article comprising: a) an absorbent chassis that includes a pair of laterally opposed side edges and a pair of longitudinally opposed waist edges; b) a pair of opposed back panels which are permanently attached to the side edges of the absorbent chassis in the back waist region of the absorbent article; c) a pair of opposed front panels which are releasably attached to the side edges of the absorbent chassis in the front waist region of the absorbent article to provide a pair of releasable joints wherein the front panel and the back panel on each side edge of the absorbent chassis are connected together along a side seam; and d) a fastener permanently attached to each of the front panels configured to engage an exterior surface of the absorbent chassis in the front waist region, wherein each releasable joint is provided by the fastener and one or more releasable bonds, wherein the one or more releasable bonds becomes destroyed upon first disengagement and the releasable joint can be broken without tearing the side panels.