Appeal No. 2004-0240
Application No. 09/730,867
JEFFREY T. SMITH, Administrative Patent Judge, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s decision to
reverse the prior art rejections advanced by the Examiner on this
appeal.
I share the Examiner’s conclusion that it would have been
obvious for one with ordinary skill in this art to include a
spangle in at least one of the recesses of a conventional golf
ball. The spangles being held in place by an undercut area in
the recess.
The subject matter of claim 1 is directed to an undercut
dimple arranged in a spherical surface of a golf ball. The
subject matter of claim 5 is directed to a golf ball containing
at least one undercut dimple. It is noted that the claimed
invention does not contain information describing the angle of
the wall of the undercut dimple. It is further noted that the
present record does not contain data that exhibits the alleged
improvement in flight of the golf ball that is achieved by the
use of one undercut dimple.
The Examiner has advanced motivation for incorporating a
spangle in at least one of the recesses of a conventional golf
ball. The spangles are held in place by an undercut area in the
recesses. For each ground of rejection, the Examiner urges that
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