Appeal No. 2004-0146
Application 09/851,911
As noted on page 1 of the specification, appellant’s
invention relates generally to footwear and, in particular, to
footwear having a sole portion from which material may be
selectively removed to create personalized imprinted images or
messages while walking on wet sand or other surfaces. A
preferred embodiment is shown in Figures 1, 4A and 4B of the
application drawings, wherein a sole portion of the footwear
(100) has a bottom surface including a closely packed matrix
of projections (120) extending therefrom, and wherein each
projection is selectively removable, thereby enabling a user to
remove a subset of the projections corresponding to a desired
personalized imprint. Independent claims 1, 15 and 16 are
representative of the subject matter on appeal and a copy of
those claims may be found in the Appendix to appellant’s brief.
The prior art references relied upon by the examiner in
rejecting the appealed claims are:
Berger 5,084,988 Feb. 4, 1992
Ellis WO 91/11924 Aug. 22, 1991
(PCT)
2
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