Appeal No. 2005-0469 Page 4
Application No. 10/093,994
to Figure 1, which shows a subset wherein the indicia from category S is a dark circle
and the indicia from category M, which will be repeated for every other subset in that
set, is a light, or unfilled, circle. As illustrated, one piece of that subset carries the dark
circle (category S) on both regions and the remaining pieces carry the dark circle
(category S) on a first region and from one to six (n being 6 in this case) light circles on
its second region. The series of one to six light circles will be repeated for each other
subset of the set, but the dark circle will be replaced with some other indicia (category
S(1) to S(x)) for the other subsets of the set. Byrne also discloses that no region of any
game piece is left blank (page 1, line 65).
Byrne also teaches the use of single region sets, as illustrated in Figure 2, which
are derived from their twin region counterparts by splitting or separating each twin
region game piece into two along the real/imaginary line between the two regions,
doubling the number of game pieces. Additionally, Byrne discloses mixed region sets,
as illustrated in Figure 3, which are derived from their twin counterparts by splitting
some but not all twin region game pieces into two single region game pieces. These
sets are therefore made up of a mixture of both single and twin region game pieces.
In reading appellants’ independent claim 1 on Byrne’s game pieces, we consider
Byrne’s categories of indicia to be responsive to the types of indicia recited in
appellants’ claim. For example, in the subset illustrated in Byrne’s Figure 1, the dark
circle is one type of indicia and the light circle is the other type of indicia. For the
reasons so aptly articulated by appellants on pages 5-7 of their brief, Byrne’s twin
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