Appeal No. 96-3645
Application 08/154,167
(a) providing a stamp with a bar code thereon representative
of a postage denomination for application to a mail piece by
the postal user at a postal bearing area;
(b) affixing said stamp to said mail piece;
(c) collecting and depositing the stamp-bearing mail piece;
(d) initially sorting so that mail pieces of a similar class
are commonly grouped;
(e) orienting the mail pieces so that the postal-bearing
areas are aligned;
(f) automatically scanning the bar codes on the mail piece
with a machine reader to determine whether a minimum
denomination of postage is affixed; and
(g) rejecting the postage material having a stamp below a
postage denomination from the processing line.
The examiner’s Answer cites the following prior art:
Wright et al. (Wright) 4,900,904 Feb. 13, 1990
Whitehouse 5,319,562 Jun. 7, 1994
(filed Aug. 22, 1991)
OPINION
The claims stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
unpatentable over Wright in view of Whitehouse. We reverse
for the reasons given by Appellants, amplified as follows.
The examiner’s rejection is based on a factual finding
that the references both disclose automatically scanning the
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007