Patent ID: 8518006

Claim:
An absorbent article for personal wear about a wearer's waist, said article comprising: a central absorbent assembly comprising a liquid permeable inner layer for facing the wearer, an outer layer for facing away from the wearer, an absorbent body disposed therebetween, a front waist region, a back waist region and a crotch region extending longitudinally between and interconnecting the front and back waist regions; a pair of transversely spaced front side panels extending transversely outward from the front waist region; a pair of transversely spaced back side panels extending transversely outward from the back waist region, the back side panels being attached to the front side panels to define a wear configuration of the absorbent article having a waist opening, a pair of leg openings spaced from the waist opening, and transversely opposite sides defined by the front and back side panels and having a length extending from the waist opening to the respective leg opening; and a pair of tabs, each tab having an attachment region attached to one of said front side panels and said back side panels, and a tab region extending transversely outward from the attachment region and being releasably attachable to the other one of said front side panels and said back side panels, said one of the front side panels and said back side panels to which the attachment region of the respective tab is attached having a first stiffness, at least a portion of the tab region of the respective tab having a second stiffness greater than said first stiffness, each of the back side panels being directly attached to respective front side panels in the wear configuration of the absorbent article by engagement of fastener components mounted on said other one of said front side panels and said back side panels with the attachment region of the tabs.