Appeal No. 2004-2299
Application No. 09/244,006
2004). The reasons for the reversal of the examiner’s rejections
and the new ground of rejection follow.
OPINION
A. Background
Appellant’s invention is directed to providing “unique
articles for personal use, such as hairbrushes, hand mirrors,
jewelry and other personal articles.” Specification, page 2, ll.
3-4. The claims are directed to a hair brush, a hand mirror, or an
article of jewelry, all of which recite the conventional structure
of the article with a decorative surface including a unique design,
i.e., a three-dimensional character face affixed to the decorative
surface (specification, page 2, ll. 5-9, and claim 23 on appeal).
The character is given a name and a storyline to create an identity
for this character (specification, page 2, ll. 11-12, and page 5,
ll. 21-25). The three-dimensional character face may be a sports
figure, an animal face, a historical figure, a fictional hero,
and/or other mythical or religious figures (id. at page 6, ll. 4-
12). Thus the present invention provides designs onto articles for
personal use to create a unique identity to the articles (id. at
page 6, ll. 28-30).
Since appellant discusses all rejections under section 102(b)
together, as well as all rejections under section 103(a) together
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