Appeal No. 1999-0515 Page 9
Application No. 08/620,256
appearance of a baseball “since such a ball could be
manipulated as taught by Ols [Nowak]” (Answer, page 4). We do
not agree.
Nowak is directed to a multipurpose ball. In the first of
the disclosed embodiments, the ball is made of elastic material
and is attached to a tether or a handle so that it can be used
as a punching ball, a soccer ball or a sling ball (translation,
pages 4 and 5; Figures 1-10). In the second of the disclosed
embodiments, the ball is of solid plastic material and is
provided with openings in the shell to accommodate a continuous
handle or a forked assembly so it can be used as a rolling ball
(translation, pages 5 and 6; Figures 11-14). Nowak is not at
all concerned with the problem upon which the appellant’s
invention is focused, nor does Nowak contemplate imparting spin
to the ball by placing a spindle which protrudes from a bore in
the ball into the chuck of an electric drill. Insofar as the
structure recited in the appellant’s independent claims 1 and
11 is concerned, while Nowak discloses in Figure 5 a ball
having a screwed-in handle that conceivably could be installed
in the chuck of an electric drill, the reference clearly fails
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