Appeal No. 2003-1516
Application 09/569,700
anticipates appealed claims 1 and 19 within the meaning of § 102(b). We have considered the
disclosure of Tsai as relied on by the examiner in the statement of the ground of rejection
(answer, page 3) as well as the additional disclosure of the reference cited in response to
appellant’s arguments (id., pages 5-8) and agree with appellant that the examiner has failed to
make out a prima facie case of anticipation. As appellant points out, each of the embodiments of
Tsai involve the attachment of an article of manufacture of label technology directly to an
application surface of a digital medium disc with an adhesive compound that couples at least a
part if not all of the article of manufacture to the application surface without any disclosure that
the entirety of the article of manufacture of label technology or at least the whole of the label
except the coupling adhesive is removable from the application surface. See, e.g., Figs. 2A and
2B, adhesive layer 24, col. 3, lines 1-13 and 32-38, col. 4, lines 29-38, col. 7, lines 45-48;
Fig. 4A, adhesive layer 24, col. 3, line 65, to col. 4, line 8, col. 4, lines 29-38; Fig. 4B, adhesive
layer 24, col. 4, lines 9-20 and 29-38, col. 7, lines 56-61. Indeed, adhesive layer 24 is referred to
as a high tack adhesive (e.g., col. 7, lines 45-48), and there is no disclosure that the articles of
manufacture of label technology shown in these embodiments is intended to result in the release
of the entirety thereof as required by appealed claim 1 or at least the whole of the label other than
the coupling adhesive as required by appealed claim 19.
With respect to the releasable support sheet relied on by the examiner in the statement of
the rejection, we point out that, as appellant argues, the support sheet 12 of the embodiment of
Fig. 4B is disclosed to be releasable by the use of an adhesive which is less aggressive than the
adhesive of adhesive layer 24 with the result that the marker elements 16 and 18 along with
adhesive layer 24, both components being part of the article of manufacture of label technology
and the marker elements 16 and 18 being part of the label, remain attached to the application
surface of the disc upon removal of only the support sheet (col. 4, lines 9-20). Indeed, support
sheet 12 of the embodiment of Fig. 4B is not per se adhered directly or coupled directly to the
application surface as required by appealed claims 1 and 19. The additional disclosure of Tsai
relied on by the examiner in response to appellant’s arguments involves carrier strip 116 of Fig.
9 (col. 6, line 42, to col. 7, line 23), transfer sheet 130 of Fig. 10 (col. 7, lines 24-61), and an
embodiment not shown (col. 7, line 66, to col. 8, line 16), the ultimate use of which involves the
- 5 -
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007