Appeal No. 2003-0790 Page 3
Application No. 09/138,063
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.
Claims 14 and 37
Claim 14 reads as follows:
A sign kit, comprising:
a stiff backing;
a sheet of paper suitable for printing with a computer
printer, which sheet of paper is lined on a rear face thereof
with an adhesive suitable for attaching the paper to the
backing and has a glossy finish on a front face thereof,
which front is also suited for receiving printed images from a
computer printer; and
means for mounting a sign.
Hoebel, the sole reference relied upon by the examiner in rejecting claims 14
and 37, discloses a photograph mailing unit comprising a rigid panel 12 or 112 having
an adhesive coating 14 or 114 on a front face thereof and a releasable backing material
16 or 116. According to Hoebel (column 1, lines 8-9), Hoebel’s invention “relates in
general to a unit to which a photograph can be affixed.” Hoebel (column 3, lines 13-43)
teaches that:
To utilize the unit 10, the backing sheet 16 is initially
removed from the unit 10. The backing sheet 16 is simply
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