Appeal No. 2004-2334
Application No. 09/888,145
sufficient to establish patentability. The bare
presence or absence of a specific functional
relationship, without further analysis, is not
dispositive of obviousness. Rather, the critical
question is whether there exists any new and unobvious
functional relationship between the printed matter and
the substrate (emphasis added).
In the present case, the mere arrangement of printed matter
(i.e., one hand unit of cards) on a strip of paper to be
incorporated into a fortune cookie does not appear to provide any
new and unobvious functional relationship between the printed
matter and the strip of paper. The only functional relationship
that we discern between the above-noted printed matter and the
strip of paper in appellant's claimed novelty item is that the
paper strip acts to support or carry the printed matter. This,
of course, is the exact same relationship that exists between the
printed matter and the paper strips in the cookie game of
Mueller. The fact that the content or meaning of information
conveyed by the printed matter placed on the paper strips in
Mueller may be different than that of the printed matter placed
on appellant's paper strips does not alter the fact that in each
instance the substrate or paper strip merely supports the printed
matter thereon. Since we discern no new and unobvious functional
relationship between the printed matter and the paper strip of
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