Appeal No. 2006-3175
Application No. 10/419,601
gatherings, such as parties, where multiple babies are present. Accordingly, it
would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the
appellant’s invention, in order to distinguish the bottles of respective infants in
such situations, to select one of the elastomeric bands of Luedde, provided with
identifying indicia such as a combination of alpha-numeric characters and colors,
and to fit the band snugly on a baby bottle having contents intended for one of the
babies at the gathering and further to select other elastomeric bands, provided with
different identifying indicia such as a combination of alpha-numeric characters and
colors different from those of the first baby bottle and from one another, and to fit
those bands snugly on baby bottles having contents intended for other babies at the
gathering, thereby meeting the limitations of claims 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16 and
18. The recitations in claims 3, 5, 6, 11, 13, 14, 17, 19 and 20, wherein each color
or written indicator indicates a different day of the week, are interpreted as
functional characteristics of the indicator. As discussed in detail above, the
different colors and alpha-numeric characters indicate different days of the week to
a user who associates those colors and characters with different days of the week
and thus meet the limitations of claims 3, 5, 6, 11, 13, 14, 17, 19 and 20.
Moreover, even assuming the recitations in method claims 11, 13 and 14, for
example, wherein each color or written indicator indicates a different day of the
week, are interpreted as an additional positive step in the method, i.e., requiring the
user to associate each color or written indicator with a different day of the week,
Murphy evidences that the desirability of placing indicia (e.g., the words
“MONDAY,” “TUESDAY,” “WEDNESDAY,” etc.) corresponding to the days of
12
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