Appeal No. 97-3003
Application 08/390,403
patentability of the claimed subject matter in light of Guier
as a primary reference. As indicated above, Guier discloses a
putter having an adjustable sole or lie angle. The putter
includes a shaft 10 and club head 13 joined by a neck 12 of
ductile material. As shown in Figure 1, the neck reasonably
can be described as comprising first and second elongated
engagement elements which are secured together at their
proximal ends. The distal end of upper or first engagement
element is attached to the shaft (see column 4, lines 39 and
40) and the distal end 30 of the lower or second engagement
element is anchored within a hole 31 in the club head (a
socket-type engagement). The neck is both ductile enough to
be bent or pivoted about its medial portion (where the
proximal ends of the two engagement elements meet) to adjust
the lie angle and strong enough to maintain the selected angle
under the force of a putting stroke (see column 4, line 21 et
seq.).
This putter construction would appear to be highly
relevant to the subject matter presently recited in claims 2,
4, 10 and 11. In this regard, we would note that, contrary to
-7-
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007