Appeal No. 1999-0515 Page 10
Application No. 08/620,256
to disclose a ball having the surface appearance of a seamed
ball.
Sain discloses a baseball pitching educational device the
purpose of which is to allow pitchers to learn how to grip a
ball to impart certain spins to it as it is being thrown toward
a batter. The surface appearance of the ball is that of a
seamed ball that is typically pitched. The ball is provided
with a bore through which a shaft is inserted to protrude from
the surface of the ball, but the ball is free to spin with
respect to the shaft.
While the feature missing from Nowak is present in Sain,
the mere fact that the Nowak ball could be modified by adding
the surface appearance disclosed by Sain does not make such a
modification obvious unless the prior art suggests the
desirability of doing so. See In re Gordon, 733 F.2d 900, 902,
221 USPQ 1125, 1127 (Fed. Cir. 1984). In the present case, we
fail to perceive any teaching, suggestion or incentive in
either reference which would have led one of ordinary skill in
the art to do so. We arrive at this conclusion for several
reasons. First, neither baseball nor any other game in which a
ball is thrown in the fashion of a baseball is contemplated by
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007