Appeal No. 98-1017
Application 08/585,472
(French Patent Document)2
Claims 1 through 7 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Andre in
view of Dozorsky.
Reference is made to the appellant’s brief (Paper No. 7) and to the examiner’s answer (Paper
No. 8) for the respective positions of the appellant and the examiner with regard to the merits of this
rejection.
Andre, the examiner’s primary reference, pertains to board games having military themes. The
embodiment relied upon by the examiner (see Figures 21 through 31 and pages 19 through 26 of the
translation) includes a checkerboard playing area having squares designating ground, fortified positions
and a river and a variety of playing pieces whose capacity to move, capture and destroy is dictated by
their relationship with the board and the other playing pieces.
As conceded by the examiner (see page 4 in the answer), Andre fails to meet the limitations in
claim 1 requiring the step of placing a plurality of playing pieces initially in predetermined ones of
squares of a playing board for a first and a second player with the position of the pieces for the first and
second players being initially a mirror image. In this regard, Andre teaches that “[a]t the beginning of
2The record indicates that an English language translation of this reference was mailed to the
appellant with the examiner’s answer.
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