Appeal No. 1999-0113 Page 9
Application No. 08/472,321
Moreover, Orford discloses that the exercise apparatus "allows a wide range of healthful
exercises to be performed; in particular it is useful for 'shadow boxing' and the like exercises" (page 1,
lines 41-45). One of ordinary skill in the art would have appreciated that shadow boxing involves
movement of the arms from a bent position wherein the fists are close to the chest or face to a fully
extended position to simulate an undercut, jab or other hitting motion. In order to accommodate this
wide range of motions and positions, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to manufacture
the Orford cords (13) so as to permit significant stretching, with the precise resilience and range of
stretch ability being a matter of design choice within the skill of the art, depending on the particular
exercises to be performed and the desired degree of difficulty. Therefore, even if claim 5 were
interpreted as requiring that the resilient element have a spring force which permits stretching by the
muscle force of a person to a length which exceeds its length at rest by at least 100% (i.e. at least a
doubling of the length) as urged in our colleague's concurring opinion, we are of the opinion that such a
feature would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art.
The appellant does not contest the examiner's assertion that it would have been obvious
to manufacture the Orford hand grips of a stretchable material as taught by Dubach, but urges
that the material of the rings of Dubach is not disclosed as being "stretchable." This argument
is not well taken, in view of Dubach's disclosure that the rings be made of "elastic plastic
material or rubber." The appellant further argues that the I-section configuration (Figure 18
and column 3, lines 27-38) alluded to by the examiner "is not likely stretchable in use as
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