Appeal No. 1998-2383 Page 11
Application No. 08/116,355
to the examiner to consider whether it would have been obvious, either in view of the teachings
of Suarez alone or in combination with other prior art of which the examiner may be aware, to
attach the cuffs of the exercise device to the feet, rather than the ankles of the user, in carrying
out the Suarez method.
2. With regard to claim 46, Holappa teaches the use of the disclosed exercise board for
exercising the abdominal muscles by lifting and lowering the legs and, optionally, doing a
partial sit-up exercise while the legs are retained on the exercise board (column 2, line 66, to
column 3, line 4). While Holappa does not disclose the step of "simultaneously moving the
hips upwardly against the elongate stretchable element" as required by claim 46, U.S. Patent
No. 4,752,067, issued to Colonello on June 21, 1988, suggests that a maneuver called a "pelvic
tilt" consisting of flexing the pelvis to flatten the lower back and thereby reduce strain on the
sensitive discal structures, in the context of sit-ups, would have been familiar to "the exercise
enthusiast" at the time of the appellant's invention (column 5, lines 14-18). The examiner may,
in fact, be aware of other references which teach that such a maneuver would have been well
known to one of ordinary skill in the exercising art at the time of the appellant's invention. The
application is remanded to the examiner to consider whether it would have been obvious, in
view of, for example, the combined teachings of Holappa and Colonello and/or other prior art,
to simultaneously move the hips upwardly, as in a pelvic tilt maneuver, against resistance
provided by a resilient element overlying the person's hips as required by claim 46.
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