Appeal No. 2006-1946
Application No. 10/437,580
optimum temperature for playing (¶ 0020) would have fairly
suggested, to one of ordinary skill in the art applying the
thermochromic material to hockey pucks, the use of a
thermochromic material having a transition temperature, e.g.,
35°F, which indicates when a puck that has warmed during play
needs to be replaced with a frozen puck to maintain the game puck
at the optimum playing temperature. The appellant’s disclosure
indicates that such thermochromic materials were known in the art
at the time of the appellant’s invention (specification, page 5,
line 26 – col. 6, line 8). We therefore are not convinced of
reversible error in the examiner’s rejection of claim 10.
Claim 14
Grupp discloses a temperature sensor having a plurality of
distinct juxtaposed zones, each covered by a thermochromic
material having a different transition temperature, so as to
indicate temperature changes over a temperature range (col. 1,
lines 5-10 and 55-57).
The appellant argues that Grupp is nonanalogous art because
“[a] person of ordinary skill in the sports object art clearly
does not look to the watch art for teachings on how to make a
better sporting good” (brief, page 16). Grupp is not limited to
the watch art but, rather, discloses a temperature indicator and
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