Appeal No. 2006-0846
Application No. 10/068,695
Hence, Shumate and Zwayer would have fairly suggested, to
one of ordinary skill in the art, the fishing reel claimed in
the appellant’s claim 13.
Claim 6
Claim 6 requires that the diameter of the substantially
circular line guide is in the range of about 3/8 to about 5/8 of
the width of the channel.
The appellant argues that “neither Shumate nor Zwayer
considers the line guide dimensions or position as a potential
remedy for controlling ‘backlash’ in a spool that revolves
during the cast” (brief, page 14). As discussed above, the
references need not be combined for the purpose of solving the
problem addressed by the appellant. Because Shumate’s spool
feeds line from a drum (23) across the width of the spool
(figure 2), one of ordinary skill in the art would have been led
by the reference to make opening 22, which is for dispensing and
rewinding the fishing line (col. 1, lines 52-55), reasonably
wide so that the line over the width of the drum can be smoothly
dispensed and rewound. That reasoning is supported by Shumate’s
figure 2 which shows the size of the opening as being a
significant portion of the spool width. Optimum values of the
opening size, such as about 3/8 to 5/8 of the width of the
6
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