In Re Ben Huang

United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit. - 100 F.3d 135

Nov. 12, 1996

Francis A. Utecht, Fulwider, Patton, Lee & Utecht, of Long Beach, California, argued for appellant.

Kenneth R. Corsello, Associate Solicitor, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, of Arlington, Virginia, argued for the Commissioner. With him on the brief were Nancy J. Linck, Solicitor, Albin F. Drost, Deputy Solicitor, and Scott A. Chambers, Associate Solicitor.

Before NEWMAN, PLAGER, and CLEVENGER, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the court filed by Circuit Judge CLEVENGER. Circuit Judge NEWMAN dissents without separate opinion.

CLEVENGER, Circuit Judge.

1

Ben Huang (Huang) seeks review of the decision of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (Board), Ex parte Ben Huang, Appeal No. 94-3535 (September 29, 1995), which held that all pending claims in Huang's application are obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103 (1994), and, therefore, unpatentable. We affirm.

2

* Huang's claimed invention is a shock absorbing grip, for tennis racquets or the like, consisting of a strip that is wrapped around the racquet handle. As shown in Fig. 8 of Huang's application (reproduced below), the strip is comprised of two layers: a textile layer 12 and a polyurethane layer 16. The user's hand grips the polyurethane layer 16 which is bonded to the textile layer 12, the bottom of which adheres to the racquet handle. The polyurethane layer 16 contains pores 22 which extend generally perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the handle.

3

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