Appeal No. 97-3195
Application 08/387,419
claim recitation “banding slots” may fairly be understood as
broadly denoting narrow openings or grooves7.
We find that Sanders (Figs. 2 and 4) teaches a nestable and
stackable reinforced plastic material pallet with handle flanges
18, and that Griffin (Figs. 8 and 9) discloses a nestable and
stackable plastic material shipping pallet that includes recessed
channels 52, 54 (Fig. 10) to protect strapping used to retain a
palletized shipping container.
In applying the test for obviousness,8 this panel of the
board determines that it would have been obvious to one having
ordinary skill in the art, from a combined assessment of the
applied prior art, to provide the pallet of Sanders with recessed
channels (slots or grooves), following the explicit teaching of
Griffin. As we see it, one having ordinary skill would have
7 Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam
Company, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1979.
8 The test for obviousness is what the combined teachings of
references would have suggested to one of ordinary skill in the
art. See In re Young, 927 F.2d 588, 591, 18 USPQ2d 1089, 1091
(Fed. Cir. 1991) and In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 425, 208 USPQ
871, 881 (CCPA 1981).
9
Page: Previous 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007