Appeal No. 2006-1946
Application No. 10/437,580
claims in each group stand or fall with the claim we address
See 37 CFR § 41.37(c)(1)(vii)(2004).
Claim 1
Douglas discloses, in the background of the invention
section (col. 1, lines 32-46):
Desirably, hockey pucks should exhibit the quality of
being “dead” objects on the ice. That is, the pucks should
have little or no bounce to them. Such bounciness is
determined by the coefficient of restitution exhibited by
the puck. The lower the coefficient of restitution, the
less bounce the puck will have. Thus, the puck, upon
hitting an object such as the ice ring wall, will drop to
the ice rather than rebounding quickly from the wall.
Heretofore, hockey pucks have had to be frozen prior to
a game in order to lower the coefficient of restitution.
However, during the game, the pucks warm up and therefore,
the coefficient of restitution increases, resulting in the
same adverse properties which were initially eliminated with
the freezing of the puck.
Douglas’ invention is “a hockey puck which [due to the inventive
rubber composition] acts like a ‘dead’ object and does not have
to be frozen to have a low coefficient of restitution” (col. 2,
lines 30-32).
Kennedy discloses a golf ball having an integral temperature
sensor comprising “a stamp or mark that changes color at a
predetermined temperature, allowing a golfer to determine the
approximate temperature of a golf ball and hence its suitability
for play” (¶ 0001). Kennedy teaches that “knowing the
temperature of a golf ball is useful in that it allows a golfer
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