Appeal No. 2003-0560 Page 3
Application No. 09/472,893
respective positions articulated by the appellants and the examiner. As a consequence
of our review, we make the determinations which follow.
Higuchi, the reference relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the claims,
discloses a multi-piece solid golf ball comprising a core 3 having a hardness of 47-65
Shore D (72-96 JIS-C), a surrounding layer 4 having a hardness of 15-70 Shore D (30-
103 JIS-C) formed on the core, an inner cover 6 having a hardness of up to 57 Shore D
(up to 86 JIS-C) formed on the surrounding layer and an outer cover 7 having a
hardness of 58-80 Shore D (87-116 JIS-C) covering the inner cover. According to
Higuchi (column 2, line 66 et seq.),
[t]he inner cover layer 6 preferably has a Shore D hardness
of up to 57 degrees, more preferably 35 to 56 degrees. If
the inner cover layer hardness exceeds 57 degrees, the ball
would offer a rather hard feel.
The examiner recognizes that the hardness of Higuchi’s inner cover, which
corresponds to the outer layer recited in appellants’ claim 1, has a hardness (up to 86
JIS-C) less than the range of 88 to 100 JIS-C of the outer layer called for in appellants’
claim 1 but dismisses it as not being a “true” difference between the claimed invention
and Higuchi’s golf ball (answer, page 6). According to the examiner (answer, page 5),
the disclosure of Higuchi et al. clearly encompasses the
hardness ranges encompassed by the claims and it would
have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at
the time the invention was made to optimize the hardnesses
of Higuchi et al. to include these specific ranges to improve
the feel of the golf ball.
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