Appeal No. 2002-1071 Page 4
Application No. 09/369,312
See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 1074, 5 USPQ2d 1596, 1598 (Fed. Cir. 1988) and In re
Lintner, 458 F.2d 1013, 1016, 173 USPQ 560, 562 (CCPA 1972).
Claim 1, the sole independent claim on appeal, reads as follows:
A golf club shaft comprising a laminate of a plurality of fiber reinforced
resinous layers having one pair of angle layers consisting of a first angle layer
and a second angle layer, or having a plurality of pairs of angle layers consisting
of said first and second angle layers, such that a fiber of said first angle layer
and that of said second angle layer incline in opposite directions at an angle 20/-
35/ with respect to an axis of said golf club shaft, wherein:
said first angle layer and said second angle layer are wound by 1.5 turns
in a cross-sectional face of said golf club shaft and said 1.5 turns of said first and
second angle layers continue along an axis of said shaft;
a winding start point of said first and that of said second angle layers are
dislocated at 180/ in a circumferential direction of said golf club shaft; and
in a cross-sectional face of said golf club shaft, a part consisting of two
first angle layers and one second angle layer layered one upon another and a
part consisting of one first angle layer and two second angle layers layered one
upon another are formed to differentiate constructions consisting of said first and
second angle layers of both of said parts.
The appellants argue (brief, p. 6) that the applied prior art does not teach or
suggest a golf shaft in which a first angle layer and a second angle layer are wound by
1.5 turns in a cross-sectional face of the golf club shaft and the 1.5 turns of the first
and second angle layers continue along an axis of the shaft as recited in claim 1. We
agree. The examiner's apparent position (final rejection, pp. 3 & 6; answer, p. 3) that
these limitations of claim 1 are met by Kawamatsu is without merit. Kawamatsu clearly
discloses in Figure 4 that the first body sheet 6a and the second body sheet 6b (i.e., the
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