Appeal No. 2002-0267 Page 6
Application No. 09/440,496
Looking first to independent claim 64, Penny Map discloses a board3 bearing an
outline of the continental United States, an outline of each individual state within the
continental United States, and a separate opening for each state within the continental
United States, including openings at least partially inside the outline of many of the
states in the eastern, western, northern and southern portions of the map, and a coin
bearing the name of a particular state within the continental United States secured
within the openings for the particular state. Penny Map fails to explicitly teach (1) that
the map has at least a first section and a second section which are foldable relative to
one another along a fold line, (2) that the openings are disposed away from the fold
line, and (3) that the openings have a diameter of approximately 15/16 of an inch.
With regard to item (1), we first point that the appellants describe their invention
on page 1 of the specification as “also being provided in the form of a game,” and we
would venture to advance without formal evidence the position that it was well known in
the art of games at the time of the appellants’ invention to provide game boards having
at least two sections which were foldable relative to one another, if for no other reason
than to facilitate storage when not in use. This position confirmed by Di Egidio, which
discloses a sports geography game comprising an outline of the continental United
States and each individual state within the continental United States, and which has
3We note in this regard that the synopsis provided by counsel for a third party with the submission
of this reference states that it “comprises a board bearing the image of all fifty states” (emphasis added).
The appellants have not disputed this statement.
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