Appeal No. 2004-0127 Page 5
Application No. 09/765,605
partial section of a sole “(preferably made of rubber or leather, most preferably rubber).”
While it is true that Squadroni mentions leather as a less desirable option to rubber, we
agree with the appellant that Squadroni fails to provide a reason to motivate one of
ordinary skill in the art to replace the plastic sole of the Dassler sports shoe with a
leather sole. In this regard, Squadroni explicitly teaches a preference for a non-leather
material, and the use of leather in a sports shoe would seem to give rise to the
problems inherent with leather soles which are eliminated by utilizing a plastics or
rubber material. Moreover, by virtue of being made of plastics material, the Dassler
sole already solves the problem of providing a water barrier, and changing to a leather
sole would eliminate a desirable feature of this reference, which would be a disincentive
to the artisan to do so. This lack of suggestion to combine Dassler and Squadroni is not
overcome by further consideration of Ohashi and Polegato.
Further with regard to Ohashi, this reference is directed to a rigid ski boot, and
teaches that plastic inserts having openings for providing ventilation in the interior of the
boot can be installed in holes in the sole. The examiner proposes to modify the Dassler
shoe by replacing the disclosed ventilation vents in the sole with the inserts disclosed by
Ohashi “to allow for air to flow through and ventilate the shoe while supporting the
opening in the sole of the shoe” (Answer, page 5). From our perspective, this already is
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