Appeal No. 98-2357
Application 08/772,336
flexible strap is pulled through the coil's inner diameter. 3
Recognizing that the flexible strap 1 of Tugwood (which has a
rather large rectangular ring 11 sewn into one end thereof)
does not appear to have a width and flexibility such that it
can be pulled through the inner diameter of the coil 3, the
examiner has relied on the teachings of Cook. While the
examiner has correctly noted that Cook teaches a coil having
an inner diameter of 1 3/4 inches, Cook does so in a
completely disparate context. That is, Cook teaches the
storage of a coiled length of telephone cord within the
housing of a telephone (see Fig. 1) or a coiled length of
electrical cord within the base of a lamp (see Fig. 7).
Absent impermissibly relying upon the appellant's own
teachings, we are at a total loss to understand why one of
ordinary skill in this art would have been motivated to
3The appellant does not appear to dispute the examiner's
position that, if the teachings of Tugwood and Cook were
combined in the manner proposed, the coil 3 of Tugwood (as
modified by Cook) would be inherently capable of being
reversed in the claimed manner. Instead, the appellant has
focused on the contention that there is no suggestion in Cook
which would lead one of ordinary skill in the art to enlarge
the inner diameter of Tugwood's coil such that the flexible
strap could be pulled through it in the claimed manner.
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