Appeal Number: 2006-2531
Application Number: 09/910,641
Rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b)
Yonkers discloses a device for separating or indexing
adjacent sheets of paper (col. 1, lines 10-12). The device
includes a flexible plastic film (14) coated with a pressure
sensitive adhesive (16) to enable the plastic film to be
attached to a finger or other object (col. 2, line 59 – col. 3,
line 3). A plurality of indexing devices can be attached by the
adhesive to a backing strip (20) from which the device is
removed before placement on the finger or other object (col. 4,
lines 3-9). The plastic film can have a traction material (18)
such as foam, sponge rubber, crosscut or hatched rubber stock,
or rubber threads, attached thereto by cement (col. 3, lines 14-
29). The plastic film and traction material can have variations
of color and shape (col. 4, lines 10-13). In another embodiment
the plastic film itself can have a traction surface (19) that is
crosscut or hatched to increase its traction ability (col. 3,
lines 54).
The appellant argues that what has a non-slip texture is
not Yonkers’ plastic film but, rather, a mass of traction
material (18) adhered to the plastic film (brief, pages 9-10;
reply brief, pages 5-6). Because Yonkers’ rubbery traction mass
materials and the plastic film are both flexible, the
combination of the plastic film and the traction material
3
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013