Appeal No. 2002-1026 Page 2
Application No. 09/239,403
BACKGROUND
The appellants’ invention relates to a golf ball. An understanding of the invention
can be derived from a reading of exemplary claim 1, which has been reproduced below.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the
appealed claims are:
Matsuki et al. (Matsuki) 4,863,167 Sep. 5, 1989
Yabuki et al. (Yabuki) 5,482,285 Jan. 9, 1996
Claims 1, 4 and 16 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Yabuki.
Claims 2, 3, 5-15 and 17 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Yabuki in view of Matsuki.
Rather than reiterate the conflicting viewpoints advanced by the examiner and
the appellants regarding the above-noted rejections, we make reference to the Answer
(Paper No. 16) and the final rejection (Paper No. 11) for the examiner's complete
reasoning in support of the rejections, and to the Brief (Paper No. 15) and Reply Brief
(Paper No. 18) for the appellants’ arguments thereagainst.
OPINION
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration to
the appellants’ specification and claims, to the applied prior art references, and to the
respective positions articulated by the appellants and the examiner. As a consequence
of our review, we make the determinations which follow.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007