Appeal No. 1998-2057 Page 11
Application 08/331,541
(as with any standard set of iron clubs) and an additional
club having a face angle greater than 31E and a length which
is within the length range of the clubs of the series whose
face angle is between 15E and 26E.
Paul shows, at page 291, that prior to the appellants’
invention a standard set of iron clubs included a #5 iron
having a loft or face angle of approximately 30E and a
standard length of 37.5 inches and that a club with a loft or
face angle of 26E would have been a #4 iron having a length of
38 inches. In our opinion, one of ordinary skill in the art
would have been motivated to vary the loft of the standard #5
iron by one or more degrees in order to customize the club for
a golfer who consistently hit the ball too high or too low,
following the teaching in Paul at page 364. As to the club
length, Paul teaches (page 348) variations in standard club
lengths by as much as ½-inch and, on rare occasions, more than
½-inch. Thus, it would have been obvious to increase the
length of a standard #5 iron by ½-inch or more (making it the
length of a standard #4 iron) in order to correct for arm
length or unusual posture.
The appellants argue that claim 28 is not a mere
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