Appeal No. 1999-2783
Application No. 08/654,034
In light of the foregoing, the decision of the examiner
to reject claims 1 through 11 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) is
reversed.
Under the provisions of 37 CFR § 1.196(b), we enter the
following new ground of rejection against claim 11 on appeal.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being
anticipated by the floating raft seen in Figures 6 and 7 of
the Budge patent. Figures 6 and 7 of the Budge patent show a
floating raft comprising a wooden framework (42) formed of
members (43, 44) fastened together and including floats (47)
to provide added buoyancy. The wooden members (43, 44) define
a planar buoyant structure or, in the terms of appellant's
claim 11, comprise substantially planar buoyant material that
not only "resembles organic matter" as the claim sets forth,
but actually is organic matter (i.e., wood) and which has a
specific gravity to float substantially horizontally at the
surface of a body of water (e.g., salt water). The framework
clearly blocks a portion of the sun's rays when it is floating
on the surface of a body of water thereby providing shade and
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