Appeal No. 2001-0205 Page 2
Application No. 08/692,016
BACKGROUND
The appellant's invention relates to a device for holding open and facilitating the
filling of a trash bag. An understanding of the invention can be derived from a reading of
exemplary claim 1, which appears in the appendix to the appellant's Brief.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the
appealed claims are:
Berger 1,554,550 Sep. 22, 1925
Flagg 4,040,638 Aug. 9, 1977
Beckham 4,832,292 May 23, 1989
Tobin 5,129,609 Jul. 14, 1992
The following rejections stand under 35 U.S.C. § 103:
(1) Claims 1, 2, 4, 5, 9 and 13-16 on the basis of Tobin and Flagg.
(2) Claims 6, 7 and 17 on the basis of Tobin, Flagg and Beckham.
(3) Claims 8 and 10 on the basis of Tobin, Flagg and Berger.1
Rather than reiterate the conflicting viewpoints advanced by the examiner and the
appellant regarding the above-noted rejections, we make reference to the Answer (Paper
No. 23) for the examiner's complete reasoning in support of the rejections, and to the
Supplemental Brief (Paper No. 22) for the appellant's arguments thereagainst.
1Flagg was omitted from the statement of this rejection in the final rejection and in
the Answer. However, inasmuch as both of these claims depend from claim 1, against
which Flagg was applied, we consider this omission to have been inadvertent.
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