Appeal No. 1998-3421
Application No. 08/646,995
specification, the hangers are plastic hangers for
garments, and the size indicia are in the form of caps 18
for indicating the sizes of garments on the hangers. The
used hangers retained by retail stores following a sale of
the garments are returned to a recycling or reuse center
423. According to claim 1, the only independent claim on
appeal, the size indicia are automatically removed from the
returned hangers at the reuse center. Based upon an
inspection at the reuse center, returned hangers in
reusable condition are delivered to garment manufacturers
for reuse. The other returned hangers not suitable for
reuse may be ground to recycle the plastic hanger material.
A copy of the appealed claims is appended to
appellantŝ brief.
The following references are relied upon by the
examiner as evidence of obviousness in support of his
rejection under 35 U.S.C. ~ 103:
Marshall et al. (Marshall) 5,272,806 Dec. 28, 1993
Myer Grace Bros. "Waste Management: Rethinking and
Recycling." pp. 45-49, (prior to January, 1996)1.
1 Appellant does not challenge the examiner's position that the Waste
Management publication constitutes prior art.
2
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