Appeal No. 1999-2783
Application No. 08/654,034
shelter or protection for fish. Appellant's own specification
(page 1) establishes that fisherman know that fish congregate
around and under floating objects. Accordingly, we consider
that the floating wooden framework of Budge would have been
viewed by one of ordinary skill in the art as a floating
artificial fish attracting habitat and, more specifically, as
broadly being a floating artificial weed line that "imitates"
floating sea weed or other flotsam for attracting fresh or
salt water fish. In this regard, we point to the bottom of
page 4 of appellant's specification, and the indication
therein that the invention is not intended to be limited to
the look of sea weed attached to a frame, and that the
invention is intended to cover "alternate embodiments using
material that does not resemble sea weed."
This decision contains a new ground of rejection pursuant
to 37 CFR § 1.196(b) (amended effective Dec. 1, 1997, by final
rule notice, 62 Fed. Reg. 53,131, 53,197 (Oct. 10, 1997), 1203
Off. Gaz. Pat. & Trademark Office 63, 122 (Oct. 21, 1997)).
37 CFR
14
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