Appeal No. 2000-1234 Page 7
Application No. 08/911,442
each of the bins accommodates a single type of cassette.
Specifically, “half-sized bin 26 and full-size bin 27
respectively store small and large cartridges.” Col. 5, ll.
40-42. More specifically, “bin 26 [is] for storing twenty-two
optical disk cartridges 22 in respective cartridge slots 104
and bin 27 [is] for storing five tape cartridges 23 in bin 27
slots 104.” Col. 21, ll. 62-65. Although the reference also
mentions that labels identifying bin 26 and bin 27 “may
include . . . whether multiple types of cartridges are
stored,” col. 6, ll. 13-15, we are uncertain whether this
refers to storing different types of cartridges in different
bins or in the same bin. In view of the aforementioned
passages of Kulakowski, we favor the former interpretation.
Therefore, we reverse the rejection of independent claims 1
and 4 and of claims 5 and 8-10, which depend from claim 1.
II. Anticipation Rejection of Claims 11, 12, 16, and 17
The examiner asserts, “[a]s clearly seen from figure 1 of
Sato et al., there is a plurality of bins (6a-6d) each one of
the bins accommodating a plurality of cassettes of a first
size or only cassettes of a second size. For example, bin 6b
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