Appeal No. 1999-0515 Page 10 Application No. 08/620,256 to disclose a ball having the surface appearance of a seamed ball. Sain discloses a baseball pitching educational device the purpose of which is to allow pitchers to learn how to grip a ball to impart certain spins to it as it is being thrown toward a batter. The surface appearance of the ball is that of a seamed ball that is typically pitched. The ball is provided with a bore through which a shaft is inserted to protrude from the surface of the ball, but the ball is free to spin with respect to the shaft. While the feature missing from Nowak is present in Sain, the mere fact that the Nowak ball could be modified by adding the surface appearance disclosed by Sain does not make such a modification obvious unless the prior art suggests the desirability of doing so. See In re Gordon, 733 F.2d 900, 902, 221 USPQ 1125, 1127 (Fed. Cir. 1984). In the present case, we fail to perceive any teaching, suggestion or incentive in either reference which would have led one of ordinary skill in the art to do so. We arrive at this conclusion for several reasons. First, neither baseball nor any other game in which a ball is thrown in the fashion of a baseball is contemplated byPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007