Appeal No. 2003-0017 Page 4
Application No. 09/326,996
In rejecting claims under 35 U.S.C. § 103, the examiner bears the initial burden
of presenting a prima facie case of obviousness. See In re Rijckaert, 9 F.3d 1531,
1532, 28 USPQ2d 1955, 1956 (Fed. Cir. 1993). A prima facie case of obviousness is
established by presenting evidence that would have led one of ordinary skill in the art to
combine the relevant teachings of the references to arrive at the claimed invention.
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).
The claimed subject matter
Claims 4, 7 and 13, the independent claims under appeal, read as follows:
4. A golfing aid comprising:
an elongated member having a first end and a second end, said first end
being provided with golf ball holding means, and said elongated member further
being provided with means for releasing a golf ball from said holding means and
means for retaining a divot repair tool; and
a divot repair tool held by said retaining means, said repair tool including
an elongated shaft having opposite ends and a divot repair element at one of
said. ends of said shaft.
7. A golfing aid comprising:
an elongated member having a first end and a second end, said first end
being provided with golf ball holding means, and said elongated member further
being provided with means for releasing a golf ball from said holding means, at
least one of said elongated member, said holding means and said releasing
means having a first golf ball marker holding portion for storing a golf ball marker,
and at least one of said elongated member, said holding means and said
releasing means having a second golf ball marker holding portion for depositing
a golf ball marker on and retrieving a golf ball marker from the ground.
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