In re Gookin

This is an appeal from the decision of the Board of Appeals of the United States Patent Office affirming the decision of the Primary-Examiner requiring division between two groups of claims in appellant’s application for a patent for “certain improvements in Hoppers and Raceways.”

The application contained one group of claims which were allowed, Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4, drawn to the construction of the hopper, and claim 5, drawn to a hopper-raceway combination, which was rejected by the examiner on the ground of misjoinder of inventions. For the purposes of appeal, the examiner admitted an…