Practice in the
United States Patent and Trademark Office is described in the USPTO
Manual of Patent Examining Procedure, § 2111.05. Generally, Examples where such a functional relationship is present include inventions in which "indicia on a measuring cup perform the function of indicating volume within that measuring cup" and in which " a hatband places a string of numbers in a certain physical relationship to each other such that a claimed algorithm is satisfied due to the physical structure of the hatband...." Examples where such a functional relationship is absent include inventions in which "a product merely serves as a support for printed matter," e.g., "a hatband with images displayed on the hatband but not arranged in any particular sequence" or "a deck of playing cards having images on each card." Even if such a relationship exists, it must still be new and unobvious to support patentability. == References ==