Appeal No. 2001-1450
Application 08/477,640
the intended wearer’s foot and contoured like the natural form on
the side or edge of the human foot (i.e, having an inner
concavely rounded surface (30a) near the intended wearer’s foot
and an outer concavely rounded surface (31a)). The concavely
rounded portions are joined together to form the shoe sole (28),
with the thickness (s) of the shoe sole (28) being maintained
exactly constant so as to provide a naturally contoured shoe sole
inside (30) and outside (31) emulating that of the human foot and
eliminating any unnatural sharp bottom edge like that seen in
Prior Art Figures 2A-2D. On page 10 of the specification,
appellant characterizes this aspect of the invention as being “a
main feature” of the invention.
With the above as background, we turn to the examiner’s
rejection of claims 22, 63, 64, 66 through 70, 72, 88, 89, 92
through 94 and 96 through 101 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being
clearly anticipated by Bretschneider. Except for being directed
to Figures 3, 4 and 7 of Bretschneider, we are provide with very
little guidance from the examiner’s rejection as to exactly how
the above enumerated claims are to be read on the shoe base or
sole structure (2) of that patent. In the final rejection (page
8), the examiner urges that the rounded portion of
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