Appeal No. 1996-0743
Application 08/152,741
The examiner recognizes that Stewart is silent as to the
overall dimensions of the sheet and the placement of the
various fold lines and strips of adhesive relative to the
sheet’s edges. However, the examiner considers that
[t]he exact specific dimensions of the business form
to be a letter or a legal sized sheet of paper and
the placement of the transverse line of weakening
and the lateral strip would have been an obvious
matter of design choice . . . since applicant has
not disclosed
that the position of the transverse line of
weakening and lateral strip and size of the business
form solves any stated problem and it appears that
the invention would perform equally well with the
business form as shown in Stewart et al. [First
office action, page 5.]
Regardless of how we attempt to read claims 7 and 9 on
the envelope of Stewart, we cannot agree with the examiner’s
position to the effect that it would have been obvious to
reconfigure Stewart’s reusable envelope in the manner that
would correspond to the subject matter of claims 7 and 9.
Considering first claim 7, Steward’s envelope comprises only
two laterally extending strips of adhesive, namely, strip of
adhesive 47 on the side of the sheet that will become the
inside of the first mailed envelope (see Figure 1), and strip
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