Read Part 7

It took a little less than three weeks for Townsend to read, research, and respond to Simpson’s letter of March 17, 1908. On April 4, 1908 he rendered his decision, following his usual format of first giving guidance about wording changes that he wanted Simpson to make.

He gave Simpson detailed changes to all three claims:

In claim 1, line 3, at should be substituted for “to” and the words “and spaced from”, canceled; line 4, the comma between “board” and “in” should be canceled and the words and spaced from inserted after “front of”.

In claim 2, line 3, at should be substituted for “to”, and the words “and spaced from”, canceled, and the words and spaced from, should be inserted before “said target”.

In claim 3, line 3, elevated, should be inserted before “apertured”; and, line 4, “and above” should be canceled.

Simpson had rewritten claim 1 to read:

In a game apparatus, in combination, a board along which a projectile is adapted to travel on an elevated target to the rear of and spaced from said board, and an obstruction upon said board, in front of said target, adapted to cause said ball to leave said board and continue its flight towards said target in the air.

After the nit-picking about the wording of the claim, Townsend delivered what could only be considered bad news for Simpson, rejecting the claim for the elevated target:

Claim 1 defines no invention over and is substantially anticipated by Miller, of record. Claim 1 is accordingly rejected.

There was a glimmer of hope for claims two and three. For those Townsend stated:

Claims 2 and 3, if amended as indicated, may, as at present advised, be allowed.

While it was still an uphill battle, it was possible that Simpson and Townsend were finally coming to some agreement about the claims for the patent. The ball was squarely in Simpson’s court. The question was, could he convince the irascible Townsend of their merits even if he made the changes?

About the author:

Thaddeus Cooper is the co-author of Seeking Redemption: The Real Story of the Beautiful Game of Skee-Ball, a deep dive into the history of the game. You can find more information about Thaddeus, and his co-author, and their book, at: http://www.nomoreboxes.com/.