Appeal No. 2001-0688
Application No. 08/689,721 Page 12
The examiner should note the statements in the admitted
prior art in the specification, as currently pending (page 1),
that "[p]rior art is limited to some resourceful teachers that
have simply tied a string around the recorder with some sort of
loop that is placed around the child's neck to suspend the
recorder." The examiner should also note the statement (page 2)
that "the method and apparatus of this invention consist of a
ring and an attached strap." From these statements in the
specification, we find that the admitted prior art teaches
suspending a recorder from the neck of the user using a string
around the recorder and a loop that is placed around the child's
neck, and that appellant's invention consists of using a ring and
an attached strap.
The examiner should consider U.S. Patent No. 4,674,298 to
Wimmershoff-Caplan (Caplan), of record. Caplan discloses the use
of a ring portion 20 which supports a writing instrument. The
ring portion is worn around the neck of a user by a chain 30.
The writing instrument is disclosed as having separable parts,
11, 12, respectively. In addition, Caplan discloses (figure 7
and col. 2, lines 13-19) that the ring portion while attached to
the chain, can then be slidingly engaged on the cap of the pen,
and that "[t]he body of the pen itself can then at will be
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