Application of Frederic Marti and Georges Braunschweig

Much of the hiatus in this record and much of the confusion which followed could have been avoided by a simple statement of the statutory ground of rejection. Instead, we are called upon again to speculate as to what statutory ground of rejection is encompassed in the rejection of the appealed design application as being “unpatentable over” a group of references cited by the examiner.

The board is to be commended for its attempt to simplify the issue by placing its reliance on the Cohen patent. Yet we still must speculate as to whether this rejection is under 35 U.S.C. § 102 or § 103. From my…