Appeal No. 96-3446
Application 08/327,147
The evidence also does not show that the commercial success of the PRIMA SOFT tights was
due to factors other than the invention, such as extensive advertising and marketing. As
appellant states in Declaration II, the only advertising of the tights was a monthly advertisement in
Dance magazine, and he did not employ or contract any sales personnel to promote and sell the
product, but "relied solely on the features of the product and the minimal advertising [in Dance
magazine]
as set forth above." We do not regard this advertising as indicative that sales of the PRIMA SOFT
tights were not due to the claimed invention. Some amount of advertising is generally necessary to
bring a new product to the attention of the relevant market, and appellant's advertisements (which are
quite modest in size ) emphasize the claimed invention, i.e., show the foot hole and state that the tights2
are "convertible" and "worn footed or footless without cutting". This case thus differs from the In re
Mageli and In re Noznick cases cited by the examiner, where in Mageli, for example, the Court
observed that "the sales could have resulted from a large advertising campaign, price concessions to get
the product moving, or purchases by an affiliate or controlled company rather than from the
2A copy of an advertisement from the October 1992 issue of Dance magazine is attached to
the examiner's answer in parent application 08/106,807, and a copy of an advertisement from the
August 1993 issue is attached to appellant's Declaration II as Exhibit IV.
11
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007