Appeal No. 2002-1972 Page 3
Application No. 09/394,722
(Paper No. 15) and the final rejection (Paper No. 11) for the examiner's complete
reasoning in support of the rejections, and to the Brief (Paper No. 14) for the appellant's
arguments thereagainst.
OPINION
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration to
the appellant's specification and claims, to the applied prior art references, and to the
respective positions articulated by the appellant and the examiner. As a consequence
of our review, we make the determinations which follow.
The Rejection Under Section 101
The appellant’s invention is an emblem in the form of a disc having a number of
features including elevated and depressed sections. It is described as being
constructed so as to represent the polarity principles of Chinese intuition as residing in
the yang and the yin. The examiner has rejected all of the claims under Section 101 on
the basis that the features recited therein “do not appear to perform functions sufficient
to give rise to patentability, and appear to be the product of a design choice” (Paper No.
11, page 2). The examiner further explains on page 4 of the Answer that “[w]hile the
medallion itself is a tangible object, the result of using the object is not a concrete or
tangible result as required.” The appellant has responded by pointing out on pages 6-9
of the Brief several reasons why the examiner’s decision on this matter is defective,
with which we find ourselves generally to be in agreement.
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