Appeal No. 2003-0625 Page 2
Application No. 09/954,729
curing the precursor color coating to form a colored layer that contains the
reflective flakes, that has the dye covalently bonded to a polymer, and that has the
optical elements supported by the colored layer.
THE REFERENCES
Maeda et al. (Maeda) 3,879,336 Apr. 22, 1975
Li 5,283,101 Feb. 1, 1994
Billingsley et al. (Billingsley) 5,812,317 Sep. 22, 1998
THE REJECTIONS
The claims stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as follows: claims 17, 19-22,
30 and 31 over Billingsley in view of Maeda, and claim 29 over Billingsley in view of
Maeda and Li.
OPINION
We affirm the aforementioned rejection.
The appellant states that the claims stand or fall together (brief, page 3).
Although an additional reference is applied to claim 29, the appellant does not provide
an argument as to the separate patentability of that claim. Consequently, we limit our
discussion to one claim, i.e., claim 17, which is the sole independent claim. See In re
Ochiai, 71 F.3d 1565, 1566 n.2, 37 USPQ2d 1127, 1129 n.2 (Fed. Cir. 1995); 37 CFR
§ 1.192(c)(7)(1997).
Billingsley discloses a method for making a colored retroreflective article by
contacting a polymeric coating precursor (intermediate layer 18) with optical elements
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