Appeal No. 2006-1667
Application No. 10/775,634
The appellant argues that Pepe does not disclose or suggest
a mattress support having a substantially convex cross-sectional
shape that is thicker in the center region and gradually thinner
towards the edges (brief, page 17). Gordon discloses a mattress
support having a convex shape at least from the center region
toward the front and back edges (figure 3B). Pepe’s inflatable
pad is convex in the length direction (figure 1). Pepe,
therefore, would have fairly suggested, to one of ordinary skill
in the art, using Pepe’s convex series of air cells in Gordon’s
inflatable bladder to provide the benefit of the air cells
disclosed by Pepe, i.e., achieving a reasonably constant pressure
distribution over its length (col. 2, lines 61-64). Moreover, in
view of Gordon’s teaching that the center portion of a mattress
tends to sag first because that is where the greatest portion of
the sleeper’s weight is located (col. 2, lines 40-42), Gordon and
Pepe would have fairly suggested, to one of ordinary skill in the
art, making Gordon’s inflatable bladder convex from the center
portion, where the sleeper’s weight is the greatest and,
therefore, the greatest thickness is needed, to the side edges
where there is less sleeper’s weight and, therefore, less need
for bladder thickness.
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