Appeal No. 97-2547
Application 07/949,042
appellants’ current appeal from the examiner’s final rejection
of claim 48 and on the appellants’ previously filed request2
for reconsideration of our decision in an earlier appeal
wherein we sustained the examiner’s rejection of claims 21 and
26. Claims 22 through 25, 27 through 32, 49, 50, 58 through
61, 63, 64 and 66 through 68, the only other claims presently
pending in the application, stand allowed.
The invention relates to a “method for extracting
contents from envelopes for processing by an operator”
(specification, page 1). Independent claims 21 and 48 read as
follows:
21. A method of extracting contents from envelopes with
an extracting machine and delivering the extracted contents to
a work station positioned to one side of the machine,
comprising the steps of stacking envelopes to be processed at
an input station, feeding the envelopes one at a time from the
input station to a cutting station, severing the envelopes
along edge portions thereof at the cutting station to provide
access to the contents, transporting the envelopes from the
cutting station to a separating station, separating the
contents from the envelopes at the separating station, and
conveying the separated contents from one envelope at a time
along a horizontally extending path to the work station at one
side of the machine.
48. In a method of extracting contents from envelopes
which have been severed along edge portions thereof and
2Claim 48 has been amended subsequent to final action.
-2-
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007