Re McNeil
Re McNeil
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court:
Appeal from a decision of the Commissioner of Patents refusing appellant’s claim covering a strap composed of fabric, as an article of manufacture, the ground of the rejection being lack of novelty. Said claim reads as follows:
“A strap composed of a strip of fabric having its side portions initially folded hack against the central or body portion, and a single seam securing the side portions to the central portion and to one another, including' loops of thread passing through one of said folded side portions, entering the central body portion of the strap, and passing through the other folded side portion, and cross threads extending across between the edges of the folded side portions and secured by said loops.”
The strap above described is really a belt loop made from a piece of fabric twice the width of the finished loop. The edges of the fabric are folded over so as to abut one another in the center of the fabric. These edges are then stitched together and to the body of the fabric in the manner described in the
The decision is affirmed. Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- RE McNEIL
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Patents; Patentability; Novelty; Process. A patent for a strap or belt loop of textile fabric, which differs from • - one already patented (Gaisman Patent No. 661,447, Nov. 6, 1900) only in the manner in which it is sewed, must be denied where the claim is not for the process, hut for the completed article, since an article which is an improvement over the prior art is not patentable unless it is a new product, differing from those -which preceded it, not merely in usefulness or excellence, but in kind. (Citing lie Higgins, 40 App. D. C. 29.)