Appeal No. 2005-1815
Application No. 10/057,719
The examiner concedes that Boyd does not respond to the
limitations in independent claims 1, 22 and 29 requiring a cup
sleeve which is a one-piece, seamless cylinder or the limitation
in independent claim 25 requiring the sleeve to be an unbroken
cylindrical sleeve.
Browne discloses a cylindrical collar 10 designed to be
placed in a golf hole above the cup 14 (see Figures 1 and 3).
The collar serves to enhance the visibility of the hole and to
maintain the shape and sharpness of the hole (see column 3, lines
18 through 25). The collar has a one-piece, seamless design (see
Figure 4) that is “sufficiently flexible to permit temporary
collapse of the diameter for insertion and removal from the hole”
(column 3, lines 35 through 37). According to Browne, this
construction makes the collar “easy to install” (column 4, line
47).
Combining Boyd and Browne to reject independent claims 1,
22, 25 and 29, the examiner submits that “[i]n view of Browne the
use of a one-piece seamless design in fashioning Boyd's liner
would have been obvious to the ordinarily skilled artisan wishing
to make Boyd's device easier to insert into the hole” (Office
action, page 2).
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