United States Patent and Trademark Office
Project: D080 Subclass – A63H Date: April 18, 2006
Comments
US approves Rapporteur’s proposal of Annex 9 and appreciates Rapporteur’s clarification of the scope of this subclass. However, we do have a few of minor questions with regard to the intended meaning of some of the terminology used in the definition statement and some possible suggestions for added clarity. The 8th bullet currently begins “Highways, railways or track ways for toys ----”. Except for toy balls being rolled along a track way, we could not think of any toy other than “toy vehicles” that these structures were intended to be used with. This bullet also includes ancillary structures such as “stations” within its coverage that seem to be limited to use with toy vehicles. Would the scope of this bullet be clearer to users if it were changed to “Highways, railways or track ways, including their bridges, interchanges, ramps and branch lines, for guiding toy vehicles or other toys (e.g., toy balls) along a path”? Moreover, the 5th bullet covering toy vehicles also includes the terminology “---; accessories therefore --” intended to cover specially adapted accessories for vehicles such as “toy garages” and “filling stations”. These are clearly not components of vehicles. These two examples seem to completely overlap in coverage with the ancillary structures that are currently covered by the 8th bullet. We believe that it would be better to relocate and combine the accessories and ancillary devices of the 8th and 5th bullets within a single bullet since these devices are frequently claimed per se. We suggest the following wording as an independent new bullet: “Accessory and ancillary devices for use with toy vehicles or their highways, railways or track ways (e.g., passenger stations, filling stations, garages, signaling systems, lighting, or steering devices)”. The 10th bullet is “Jokes, confetti, streamers, or other dance favors”. Is the term “jokes” in British as it is used in this bullet intended to cover the same things as “gag devices” in American? Jokes are normally limited to verbal statements and not devices in American. Is the term “dance favors” in British intended to cover the same things as “party favors” in American? A gag device would not normally be a dance favor in American. In fact, getting a favor from your dance partner could mean something quite different in American. Could Rapporteur clarify the intended coverage of this bullet? For example, would “Joke or gag devices, confetti, streamers, or other types of party or dance favors” be clearer?