Appeal No. 98-1033
Application No. 08/574,330
Thus, appellant reads Gubbins as teaching that the material of
the sleeve, as well as its longitudinal grooves, are of
importance in achieving the Gubbins’ objective of lessening
the hitting of foul balls.
We think the appellant’s view of Gubbins is the better
one. Gubbins’ objective is to hold the ball to the bat to
prevent it from bounding away laterally. To achieve this
objective, Gubbins teaches providing a corrugated rubber or
corrugated leather sleeve over the hitting surface of an
“ordinary” (presumably wooden) bat. In our view, one of
ordinary skill in the art would have logically concluded from
this that the relatively soft nature of the sleeve plays a
role in achieving Gubbins purpose. This being the case, we 3
do not believe the ordinarily skilled artisan would have
discarded Gubbins’ soft sleeve in adapting a modern metallic
bat for Gubbins’ purpose. Nothing in Carr convinces us
otherwise. Thus, we do not regard the combined teachings of
3While we appreciate that Gubbins also states that “other
materials” (lines 38-39) may be used, we do not think this
disclosure is particularly helpful to the examiner’s position
when read in context.
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