Application of Joseph D. Howard and William M. Brobeck

ALMOND, Judge.

This is an appeal from the decision of the Board of Appeals, adhered to on reconsideration, affirming the action of the examiner in rejecting claims 2 and 3 of an application1 for a method for handling materials. The grounds upon which the rejections were predicated are that the claims fail to define patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. §§ 100 and 101 since they are drawn to a method of doing business, and that the method defined in the claims is old, being the same as that commonly used in connection with catalog sales. Apparatus claims 7 and 11 to 19 were allowed. There…