Appeal No. 1999-2035 Page 10
Application No. 07/772,698
number of strips of matting 32, which can be manufactured in
the desired colors and unrolled on the court. Grant further
teaches that the use of matting eliminates the need to paint
or otherwise color the court directly, and the mats could be
transported to different courts.
Bourgin discloses an electrical grid board divided by a
net over which a ball is served as in tennis. As shown in
Figure 1, the playing area 1 is divided into two equal halves
by a net 4. Each half is divided into a grid of rows 2 and
columns 3. Bourgin teaches that the rows may be colored, the
serving zones being red and the front zones being green.
Using electronic circuitry connected to the rows 2 and columns
3 and a series of playing cards, the player follows a game of
strategy in returning the ball to the opposite court.
With respect to claim 32 (the only independent claim on
appeal), the examiner determined (answer, pp. 3-4) that
[t]o utilize the teachings of BOURGIN to divide the court
of GRANT into a number of predetermined sectors would
have been considered obvious in view of the teachings of
BOURGIN, since the greater the number of sectors would
require greater skill on the part of the practicing
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