Appeal No. 2006-3175
Application No. 10/419,601
The appellant seeks review of the examiner’s rejection of claims 1, 2 and 4
under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being anticipated by Lyon and rejections under 35
U.S.C. § 103(a) of claims 3, 5 and 6 as being unpatentable over Lyon, claims 7-20
as being unpatentable over Lyon in view of Ricks and claims 1-20 as being
unpatentable over Murphy in view of Lyon or Luedde.
Rather than reiterate in their entirety the conflicting viewpoints advanced by
the examiner and the appellant regarding this appeal, we make reference to the
examiner's answer (mailed May 2, 2006) for the examiner's complete reasoning in
support of the rejections and to the appellant's brief (filed March 27, 2006) for the
appellant's arguments thereagainst.
OPINION
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration
to the appellant's specification and claims, to the applied prior art, and to the
respective positions articulated by the appellant and the examiner. As a
consequence of our review, we make the following determinations.
We shall not sustain the rejection of claims 1, 2 and 4 as being anticipated
by Lyon. Lyon discloses color coded elastic or rubber bands for use on containers
of “bottle gas” as used for example in cooking stoves or in industrial or
commercial applications (col. 1, ll. 4-6, 22-23 and 45-46). One side of the band
can carry indicia such as the owner’s name while the opposite side can carry the
legend “EMPTY” (col. 1, ll. 46-49). The two sides of the band can be differently
colored, with different color combinations being used to identify different gases as
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