Appeal No. 96-3681
Application 08/234,450
Johnsen is not retained upon nor does it form a part of the
purchased merchandise item. In other words, once the item in
Johnsen has been purchased, the tag device 10 is removed
therefrom. Therefore, the feature of the electronic memory
forming an integral part of the purchased merchandise item at
the end of claim 21 on appeal can not be met by the teachings
in Johnsen. Thus, the rejection of this claim under 35 U.S.C.
§ 102 must be reversed as well as its respective dependent
claim 22.
Finally, we sustain the rejection of independent claim
20.
As to this claim appellant argues-in-part at the bottom of
page 5 of the reply brief that because Johnsen's label is
deactivated during checkout, there is no true “permanent
record” of the information about the item as required by this
claim. Initially, there is no requirement in the claim for a
permanent record after purchase or other type of checkout of
the merchandise item associated with the claimed label.
Therefore, appellants' argument is more specific than the
actual scope of the claim on appeal. Inasmuch as Johnsen's
information is changeable over its life cycle from the
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