Appeal No. 2001-2229
Application No. 09/346,226
Dixon, the examiner’s primary reference, discloses a roll
of gift bags designed to accommodate odd-shaped packages
having various corners and angles. Each bag 24 consists of
pair of decorative polyethylene sheets 22 and 23 which are
connected at their side and bottom edges and unconnected at
their tops to form an open mouth for receiving a gift, and a
tie (see Figure 2) for closing the bag. In the embodiment
relied on by the examiner (see Figures 3 and 4),
the polyethylene plastic material has several
locations which can be heat shrunk using the
application of hot air so the final package will
snugly fit an odd shaped package. The material 12'
shown in FIG. 3 includes areas 50 which have only a
two ply thickness of material on the outer sheet 22
and on the inner sheet 23 at areas 50; whereas,
these sheets have multi-ply thicknesses at areas 52
other than and adjacent to the areas 50. Thus, the
application of heat to the bag may cause all areas
to shrink, however, the areas 50 will shrink more
than the adjacent areas 52 due to the multi-ply
thickness of the areas 52 adjacent to the areas 50.
In this manner, the entire bag will shrink and thus
fit snugly about a package, however, certain areas
will shrink more than other areas and be snugger in
certain areas of the packages [column 4, lines 41
through 56].
As tacitly conceded by the examiner, the Dixon bag fails
to meet the limitations in independent claim 1, and the
corresponding limitations in independent claim 8, requiring
4
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