Appeal No. 2006-0770 Page 4
Application No. 09/783,366
In light of the above description of Wilson’s display apparatus, the semicircular front
retaining edge 43 and the front face of the box-shaped rear retaining edge 45 respond fully to the
forward and rearward interfaces recited in claims 1 and 17. Accordingly, we conclude that the
examiner’s determination in the final rejection that the only difference between the subject
matter of independent claims 1, 17 and 32 and Wilson resides in the picture on the layer recited
in appellants’ claims 1, 17 and 32 was a correct determination.
Claims 1, 17 and 32 each recite a picture on a layer, the picture illustrating a scene
relating to said sports related object. The examiner relies on Rand for a suggestion to provide
such a feature in the Wilson display apparatus. Rand discloses a display apparatus for preserving
and displaying game comprising a frame A, a back B, and a glass cover C having a bulge C2 to
accommodate the stuffed game and other specimens of the taxidermist’s art and a flange C1 to fit
into the frame between the glass cover and the back. Rand teaches that the back may be painted
or otherwise provided with a picture for a pleasing background and illustrates in Figure 1 a scene
giving the impression of the habitat of the game. A person of ordinary skill in the art of
memorabilia display at the time of appellants’ invention would have found in Rand a teaching to
display objects to be preserved and commemorated within a display frame with a picture of the
natural habitat or environment of the objects displayed on a surface behind the objects. This
teaching would have provided such a person with ample suggestion to provide such a picture
with other objects similarly displayed, such as the cap in the display apparatus of Wilson, to
illustrate a scene or habitat associated with the object. We thus agree with the examiner that it
would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have provided a picture on or in an
opening in the backing material 33 behind the cap displayed in Wilson’s cap display apparatus,
the picture illustrating a scene relating to the cap. With respect to claims 37-45, the specific
details of such a scene do not affect the functioning of the device and are related merely to
design considerations directed to printed matter that do not patentably distinguish the claimed
subject matter from the prior art.
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