Appeal No. 1998-3425
Application 08/502,977
the examiner has taken the position that it would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the
sawtooth-like teeth in the dispensing slot (32) of the plastic
bag dispenser of Marshall, Figures 1-7, to be in a form
wherein the teeth have “truncated crests and roots as taught
by Wilfong” (answer, page 5), so as to facilitate a larger
area of engagement for subsequent tearing of individual bags.
As for the recitation in
the last clause of appellant’s independent claim 8 that the
dispenser must also contain “a roll of polyethylene bags
separated by a single central slot and perforations” and the
further requirement that the pair of opposed interdigitating
toothed edge surfaces of the housing must be in engagement
with “a central slot separating two bags to enable a single
bag to be dispensed from the roll,” the examiner has urged
(answer, page 6) that
these limitations have not been given any patentable
weight, since it has been held that a recitation with
respect to the manner in which a claimed apparatus
is intended to be employed does not differentiate
the claimed apparatus from a prior art apparatus
satisfying the claimed structural limitations.
The examiner cites Ex parte Masham, 2 USPQ2d 1647 (BPAI 1987)
as support for the above proposition.
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