Appeal No. 2006-0059 Page 9
Application No. 10/139,397
inclusion of a take-up reel must occur after combining the layers. Thus, to include a
take-up reel in the cartridge of Bradshaw would require major modifications to the
design and operation of the cartridge and apparatus.
The Examiner cites the Koyama, Stahl and Roou references for describing the
use of take-up reels. These references while disclosing the use of take-up reels, do
not suggest the modifications that would be required to be performed on the cartridge
and apparatus of Bradshaw to meet the present claims.
We agree with the Appellants that the Examiner’s conclusions as to what one
skilled in the art would have considered obvious appears to be based on
impermissible hindsight. (Brief, pp. 15-19). The Bradshaw reference does not
describe a need for including a take-up roll in its cartridge. Bradshaw discloses that
when labels are created that they may be removed from the film substrate at time of
use. (Col. 2, ll. 35-39). Bradshaw does not recognize a problem with the user’s
hands coming in contact with an adhesive. The apparatus of Bradshaw produces a
laminated product which for example in its simplest form contains three layers,
namely the upper layer (UL) from the upper feed roll, the center layer (CL) which is
the item to be laminated and the bottom layer (BL) from the lower feed roll. The
product exiting the apparatus is a composite of these three layers. As explained in
column 2, when an adhesive is applied to the center layer (CL) from the bottom feed
roll the excess adhesive is picked up by the film of the upper layer (UL). There is no
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