Appeal No. 2004-0127 Page 4
Application No. 09/765,605
The appellant’s invention is directed specifically to improvements in shoes having
leather soles (specification, page 1) and, in this context, claim 1 requires “a tread made
of leather.” Dassler discloses a sports shoe, such as a tennis shoe, having “a flexible
plastics outsole” (Abstract; column 1, lines 44-49). There is no teaching in this
reference, express or implied, that the sole can be made of leather. Thus, the primary
reference clearly lacks disclosure or teaching of this feature and, since leather is not
utilized, the problems arising in leather soles owing to exposure to water and vapor, to
which the appellant has directed his inventive efforts, are not present in Dassler.
The examiner then looks to Squadroni, concluding that Squadroni “teaches it is
desirable to ventilate a shoe sole made of leather (see column 2, lines 65-68) to allow
for the foot of the user to breathe,” and therefore “it would have been obvious to make
the shoe sole of Dassler ‘685 out of leather, or any other known sole material, and
ventilate it . . . to allow the foot of the user to breathe and prevent fluid build-up in the
shoe of the user” (Answer, page 5).
Squadroni discloses a shoe sole with a plurality of check valves for allowing air to
be discharged from the inside of the shoe to ventilate the shoe. The passage in the
Squadroni specification to which the examiner refers states that Figure 2 shows a
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007