Appeal No. 2001-2338
Application 08/996,360
between the chair seen in Zapf and appellant’s claimed subject
matter is that Zapf “does not teach exposed readable indicia”
disposed on the cushioning apparatus or cover thereon. To
account for the above-noted difference, the examiner turns to the
portable, foldable seat cushion of Geraci used for sporting
events, urging that
It would have been obvious and well within the level of
ordinary skill in the art to modify the cushioning apparatus
and its cover, as taught by Zapf, to include exposed
readable indicia comprising a team name or logo, as taught
by Geraci on the cover of the cushioning apparatus, since
the concept is very old in the art such as placement on
mugs, drinking cups, insulated devices for placement around
cans, cups, or mugs, and seat cushions is old and it is an
old form of advertisement that allows one to put his
company, business, store, or franchise name out in the
public eye and to also have merchandise tie-ins with sports
teams and allow fans at sporting events to show what team
they support, as well as showing team spirit/support. [see
examiner’s answer, page 4]
One look at Figures 1 and 2 of Zapf belies the examiner’s
assertion that the chair seen therein is “a substantially non-
movable chair provided as a permanently mounted stadium chair.”
To the contrary, it is abundantly clear that the chair of Zapf is
an upholstered office chair that is intended to be movable via
the castered base (24) thereon. The examiner’s further
assertions on page 8 of the answer that the chair of Zapf is
8
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007