Appeal No. 2003-0858 Page 12
Application No. 09/557,509
resiliency and coil count of the resulting product. The plies of resilient foam material
may be made from conventional urethane foam or any other resilient foam material of
the type from which foam mattresses or foam cushions and pillows are conventionally
made.
The advantage of having foam pads or plies of resilient foam 60 between the
individual strips 22 of pocketed coil springs 31 is that there is a substantial savings in
wire utilized in the mattress, cushion, or product embodying the spring interior, and the
resulting product may be manufactured less expensively than the embodiment of
Figures 1 and 2. Additionally, the resulting product may be easily varied in firmness by
varying the thickness T of foam plies 60 in the resulting product, and the product may
thereby have a softer or more resilient feel.
The rejection
In the rejection of claims 1 to 30 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 before us in this appeal
(final rejection, pp. 2-3), the examiner determined that "[i]t would have been obvious to
employ the multiple coil springs segments and foam filler segments [of Long in Asaro's
upholstery pad unit] in order to provide a very quiet spring assembly that is easy to
manufacture."
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