Appeal No. 2004-1756 Page 2
Application No. 09/880,882
forth in representative independent claim one which reads as
follows:
1. An ice skate blade comprising:
a) an upper portion having a top surface and two linear left
and right sides forming two substantially parallel planar blade
mounting surfaces; and
b) a lower portion comprising two planar lower faces, each
lower face extending linearly downwardly and outwardly from the
bottom of one of said sides at a discrete angle of between 4° and
12°, said lower faces having lower edges bounding between them
the bottom surface of said blade.
The reference cited below is relied upon by the examiner as
evidence of obviousness:
Bryant 524,129 Aug. 7, 1894
Claims 1-8 are rejected under the first paragraph of 35
U.S.C. § 112. Although the examiner refers to the enablement
requirement of this paragraph, it is clear that this rejection is
based on the examiner’s belief that the claim term “linearly”
does not comply with the written description requirement of
§ 112, first paragraph. In this regard, see pages 3 and 5 of the
Answer.
Additionally, claims 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103(a) as being unpatentable over Bryant. According to the
examiner, “it would have been an obvious matter of design choice
to specify the angle that the lower surface [of Bryant’s ice
skate blade] extends from the upper surface to be within the
range of 4 to 12 degrees, preferable 8 degrees" (Answer, page 4).
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