11588810 (P.T.A.B. May. 30, 2013)

Ex Parte Mantis

Patent Trial and Appeal BoardMay 30, 2013

11588810 (P.T.A.B. May. 30, 2013)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www.uspto.gov APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 11/588,810 10/27/2006 Lee Mantis 135/1B 4365 7590 05/30/2013 Schwartz Law Firm, P.C. SouthPark Towers Suite 1135 6100 Fairview Road Charlotte, NC 28210 EXAMINER LARSON, JUSTIN MATTHEW ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 3782 MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE 05/30/2013 PAPER Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE ____________ BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD ____________ Ex parte LEE MANTIS ____________ Appeal 2011-003752 Application 11/588,810 Technology Center 3700 ____________ Before JAMES P. CALVE, SCOTT A. DANIELS, and BEVERLY M. BUNTING, Administrative Patent Judges. CALVE, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL STATEMENT OF THE CASE Appellant appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the rejection of claims 10-16. App. Br. 5. Claims 1-9, 17, and 18 are cancelled. Id. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We REVERSE. Appeal 2011-003752 Application 11/588,810 2 CLAIMED SUBJECT MATTER Claim 10, the sole independent claim on appeal, is reproduced below: 10. An organizer attachment adapted for releasably attaching to a vehicle sun visor, said organizer attachment comprising: a rectangular organizer panel having opposing lateral edges and opposing longitudinal edges, the lateral edges being relatively short as compared to the longitudinal edges, and opposing planar inside and outside major panel surfaces, said inside panel surface defining a first fastener area comprising first and second separate, spaced apart, and substantially identical fastener panel strips comprising one of hoop and loop fasteners, said fastener panel strips residing adjacent respective opposing lateral edges, and said inside major panel surface further defining a continuous and uninterrupted fastener-free surface area between said first and second fastener panel strips, said fastener-free surface area being greater than a surface of area of either one of said fastener panel strips, and each fastener panel strip comprising a continuous and uninterrupted area of fasteners extending from one longitudinal edge of said organizer panel to the opposite longitudinal edge of said organizer panel; first and second visor straps separate and detachable from said organizer panel, and adapted for being secured to the sun visor, each visor strap defining a second fastener area comprising one of hook and loop fasteners releasably mating with a corresponding one of said first and second fastener panel strips of said organizer panel, such that said organizer attachment is readily removed from the sun visor and said visor straps for transport outside of the vehicle; and each fastener panel strip having a width dimension greater than a width dimension of a corresponding visor strap. REJECTION Claims 10-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Drew (US 5,762,246; iss. Jun. 9, 1998) and Harnish (US 5,345,633; iss. Sep. 13, 1994). Appeal 2011-003752 Application 11/588,810 3 ANALYSIS The Examiner found that Drew discloses an organizer for attachment to a vehicle sun visor 12 comprising an organizer panel 22 with an opposing inside planar surface 32 and outside planar surface 30 where the inside panel surface 32 includes first and second separate, spaced apart fastener strips 38 with a continuous, uninterrupted fastener-free area between them and first and second visor straps adapted for securing the panel to the sun visor. Ans. 3-4 (citing fig. 8). The Examiner found that Drew fails to disclose whether the first and second visor straps 10 are detachable from the organizer panel so that the organizer panel is readily removed from the sun visor and visor straps for transport outside the vehicle. Ans. 4. The Examiner found that Harnish discloses a device attached to an interior component of a vehicle via two straps 35 that are completely separate and detachable from the device so the device can be removed from the vehicle. Ans. 5. The Examiner determined that it would have been obvious to make Drew’s visor straps separate and detachable from the organizer panel to allow a user to remove the organizer panel from the sun visor for ease of use outside the vehicle. Id. Appellant argues that Drew’s visor straps 10 are permanently attached to the organizer panel 22 so that the organizer is pivoted and releasably held adjacent the vehicle sun visor 12 by mating complementary hook and loop fasteners 52, 54 located on the straps 10 and panel 22 and therefore there is no reason to modify Drew to make the visor straps detachable. App. Br. 12- 13. Appellant also contends that “Drew states clearly that ‘the mechanism for attachment [of the support panel to the vehicle visor] includes at least one strap 10 which is interconnected to the inside surface 32 of the support panel near the top edge 46.” Reply Br. 5 (citing col. 4, ll. 26-32). We agree. Appeal 2011-003752 Application 11/588,810 4 The Examiner has not adequately explained why a skilled artisan would have been motivated to provide Drew with detachable visor straps, when Drew discloses visor straps 10 that are interconnected to an inside surface 32 of a support panel near a top edge 46 (col. 4, ll. 27-44) so that the organizer can be pivoted from a first position where the compact discs can be accessed and a second position in which a vanity mirror on the visor can be accessed (col. 1, ll. 5-13 and 57-67; col. 2, ll. 59-64). The Examiner’s finding that Drew seems to disclose that fastener areas 52, 54 are separate elements from the organizer in an embodiment where the visor strap 10 is a continuous loop of elastic material (col. 4, ll. 53-57) is not supported by a preponderance of the evidence. Ans. 5. Even if the strap 10 is a continuous loop of elastic material so that hook and loop fasteners are not needed, the loop still would have to be attached to the organizer to secure the organizer to the visor. See Ans. 4 (“Drew does, however, state that in both positions of the organizer panel, the organizer panel remains operably interconnected to the visor (see col. 1 lines 11-13) which arguably brings the issue of complete detachment into question.”). In this regard, Drew discloses that attachment strap 10 remains interconnected to visor 24 in the first and second positions to alleviate the problem of having to remove an entire storage device from the visor when the driver wants to view the vanity mirror. Col. 4, l. 58 to col. 5, l. 6; fig. 8. As such, we do not sustain the rejection of claims 10-16. DECISION We REVERSE the rejection of claims 10-16. REVERSED mls