Appeal No. 1999-1986
Application 08/677,776
having ordinary skill in the art. We disagree.
It is readily apparent to us that the clear objective of
the patentee Bigornia is to provide a variable weight puck so
as to effect a heavier puck for more experienced players and a
lighter puck for less experienced players. With that
objective in mind, the patentee discloses an embodiment (Fig.
6) that includes up to 6 thin, circular metallic disks stacked
in a puck cavity to provide extra weight. To create a lighter
puck, a puck cover 14 is unscrewed, and a number of the disks
are removed.
The examiner, viewing the showing in Figure 4 of
Bigornia, is of the opinion that it would have been obvious to
one having ordinary skill in the art to provide the disks with
larger holes to enable the weights to be more readily added
and removed, which modification according to the examiner
would allow the weight to be movable in three dimensions and
inherently cause the puck to topple from the side when rolling
(answer, page 3).
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