Appeal No. 96-2296
Application 08/091,894
side walls and end walls, there being free-standing pillars
7a,b,c,d spaced about the perimeter of the bottom wall to form
U-shaped openings visually exposing a substantial portion of
the bottles. The deLarosiere patent discloses a tray 10 for a
plurality of multipacks 2 of bottles 4. The tray shown in
Fig. 3 is exemplary and holds four six-packs of bottles, each
in a receptacle 26. For each six-pack a hollow, tapered
pillar 40 extends above the base of the tray. As disclosed in
col. 3, lines 18 to 41, and col. 5, lines 29 to 49, each
pillar 40 fits within the space between four bottles of a six-
pack, and the taper allows the empty trays to be nested on top
of one another with each pillar of the lower tray fitting into
the hollow interior of the corresponding pillar of the upper
tray, as shown in Fig. 4. This allows the trays (cases) to be
“nested efficiently when empty” (col. 3, lines 60 and 61).
The examiner takes the position that (answer, page
3):
It would have been obvious to make the
pillars of Van Onstein et al tapered as
shown by de Larosiere in order to enhance
the handling of containers in the tray and
to make the trays nestable together so that
3
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Last modified: November 3, 2007