Appeal No. 98-2136
Application No. 08/497,634
Stocker discloses an example of "a jungle scene which shows a
tree branch printed on the garment and a teddy bear nested in
the tree branch," and to Stocker’s disclosure at col. 3, lines
16 to 29, that there is "a ‘hide and seek’ aspect to the
arrangement of such a garment pocket and toy, which captivates
the child."
We do not consider that Stocker, and particularly the
disclosure thereof referred to by the examiner, would have
suggested appellant’s claimed structure to one of ordinary
skill in the art. The content of the pictorial representation
is not merely "a matter of design choice for aesthetic
purposes," as the examiner argues, supra, but rather is
related to the structure of the garment in that the opening
into the pocket of the garment is coincident with the opening
into the interior space of the habitat element depicted on the
pocket. Thus, there is a functional relationship between the
pictorial representation on the garment and the structure of
the garment itself. Cf. In re Gulack, 703 F.2d 1381, 1385,
217 USPQ 401, 404 (Fed. Cir. 1983). This relationship is not
taught by Stocker. The fact that Stocker states that the
garment may be printed with a tree branch so that it appears
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