Appeal No. 2005-0988
Application 09/878,592
gaming machine like that in Pierce so as satisfy the above-noted
needs in the gaming machine industry and thereby capitalize on
the tremendous popularity and name recognition of PLINKO and THE
PRICE is RIGHT to attract players and operators to such gaming
machines. We do not find anything in the applied prior art which
affirmatively teaches away from the substitution proposed by the
examiner, and we see no basis to conclude that such a
substitution would significantly or fundamentally alter the
principle of operation of the gaming machine in Pierce.
Appellant’s underlying premise that none of the applied
prior art teaches a three-stage game including 1) a base game for
triggering a start-bonus outcome, 2) a selection stage for
determining the number of chances a player will have in a later
Pachinko-type stage, and 3) a Pachinko-type stage wherein the
game pieces won in the selection stage are successively and
randomly directed down a pachinko-type peg board to one of a
plurality of payouts, is faulty. As we noted above in discussing
the applied “Plinko” document, PLINKO as played on the televison
game show THE PRICE is RIGHT is a three-stage game, i.e., 1) a
base game wherein a contestant is selected via an initial
competitive price guessing round to play the secondary event or
bonus game of PLINKO, 2) a selection stage used for awarding a
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