Appeal No. 2006-2284 Page 16
Application No. 09/912,211
"two RFID tags 420 and 430 spaced a short distance apart," (id. at ll. 52-53), to "ensure
that only one tag can be read at any given position." (Id. at ll. 63-64.)
We find that using such an RF shield to enclose Bowers' exterior book drop 32
would have prevented interrogators and scanners outside the book drop from recording
the location of articles placed in the drop, which would have eliminated the
aforementioned ambiguity and uncertainty. When teachings of Bowers and Francis
were so combined, we further find that these would have suggested shielding the
interior of a container from external signals. Therefore, we affirm the rejection of claim
33 and of claims 34-37, which fall therewith.
Rather than arguing the rejection of claim 52 separately, the appellants rely on
their aforementioned arguments. (Appeal Br. at 14) Unpersuaded by these arguments,
we also affirm the rejection of this claim.
3. Determining the Number of Members within the Container
The examiner finds, "Bowers et al. teaches producing a report based on the
analysis of the content of the container (col. 14 lines 4-10) and the report shows the
number of members in a subset as shown in figure 7, the subset is based on the
location of the items." (Examiner's Answer at 8.) The appellants argue that "the cited
Page: Previous 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013