Appeal No. 98-1047
Application 08/612,814
under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Scatterday in
view of Thomas.
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.
Scatterday, the examiner's primary reference, discloses
"a ball-like grip that the user holds within one hand" (column
1, lines 55 and 56). As described in the reference,
[t]he user applies pressure to the grip with his or
her fingers to deform the grip's shape. The grip
has a structure that makes it semi-resilient in that
when the user stops applying pressure to the grip
after it has been significantly deformed, it only
partially returns to the shape it had prior to the
deformation.
To achieve this semi-resilient characteristic,
the grip employs a particulate core surrounded by a
resilient rubber covering. The core is comprised of
a quantity of free particles intermixed with a dry
lubricant powder. The lubricant allows the
particles to slide over one another without damage
and helps to reduce the internal resistance to
sliding movement within the core.
The rubber covering exterior to the core is made
of a latex rubber material that has a round shape
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Last modified: November 3, 2007