Appeal No. 97-2456
Application 08/424,064
Claims 4 and 13, which depend ultimately from independent
claims 1 and 9, respectively, recite a housing for storing a
flexible tape measuring device. Cruickshank would have provided
ample suggestion to the artisan to provide the tape measure
embodiment disclosed by Jones with such a housing to store and
protect the tape.
Claims 2 and 5, which ultimately depend from claim 1, claims
11 and 14, which ultimately depend from claim 9, and independent
claim 18 recite measuring devices comprising, inter alia, a code
chart correlating each color of the measuring marks to a
fractional portion of each of the groups of marks. The
examiner’s reliance on Cruickshank’s information index to remedy
the conceded shortcomings of Jones and Glaese in this regard (see
pages 3 and 4 in the final rejection) is not well taken. In
short, Cruickshank’s disclosure of the information index does not
teach, as asserted by the examiner, “how a chart may be used for
the purpose of interpreting markings on a tape” (final rejection,
page 3), and would not have suggested a measuring device having a
color chart of the type recited in claims 2, 5, 11, 14 and 18.
In summary and for the above reasons, the decision of the
examiner to reject claims 1 through 18 is affirmed with respect
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