Appeal No. 2003-0540 Page 6
Application No. 09/737,001
that the following combination of limitations as recited in claims 9 and 10 did not find
written description support in the original disclosure: (a) the outer layer of the cover
being formed of a first ionomer resin having a Shore D hardness of 40 to 50 or 55 and a
thickness of at least 0.4 mm; (b) the inner layer of the cover being formed of a second
ionomer resin having a Shore D hardness of 57, 64 or 66 to 68 and higher than the
hardness of the first ionomer resin; and (c) the difference in hardness between the first
and second ionomer resins being at least 5 in Shore D hardness.
With respect to the outer layer, the original disclosure teaches (1) that the outer
layer is comprised of a relatively soft, low modulus (about 1,000 psi to about 10,000 psi)
and low acid (less than 16 weight percent acid) ionomer, ionomer blend or a
non-ionomeric thermoplastic elastomer (p. 24); (2) that preferably, the outer layer
includes a blend of a high modulus (hard) ionomer with a low modulus (soft) ionomer to
form a base ionomer mixture wherein the high modulus ionomer has a Shore D
hardness of at least 50 and the low modulus ionomer has a Shore D hardness of about
20 to about 40 (pp. 24-25); (3) specific disclosed hard ionomer resin examples have a
Shore D hardness of 55, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64 and 66 (pp. 27-29); (4) specific
disclosed soft ionomer resin examples have a Shore D hardness of 32, 35 and 39 (pp.
31, 33 and 34); and (5) examples 28 and 29 in Table 4 of U.S. Patent No. 4,884,814
(referenced on page 34) include covers having a Shore D hardness of 53 and 45.
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