Patent ID: 7490860

Claim:
A lay-flat book comprising: a plurality of individual notched sheets including multiple A sheets and multiple B sheets, with each sheet presenting a binding margin, said A and B sheets alternating in order and being in face-to-face adjacency, said binding margins of the notched sheets being aligned to cooperatively define a generally flat spine surface of the book contents, each of said binding margins of the A and B sheets having a series of spaced apart, glue-receiving notches along the length thereof that define corresponding sheet tabs between the notches, the notches in each A sheet and the tabs therebetween being of the same length and width as the notches and respective tabs in each B sheet, the tabs in the A sheets being fully offset from the tabs of the immediately adjacent B sheets on either side thereof, the tabs of respective A sheets having a B sheet therebetween, and the tabs of respective B sheets having an A sheet therebetween being disposed in directly opposed, facing, aligned relationship, such that the notches of each A sheet are fully and directly aligned with respective tabs of adjacent B sheets and the notches of each B sheet are fully and directly aligned with respective tabs of adjacent A sheets, said tabs of the notched sheets each presenting a generally linear outermost edge, said outermost edges of the tabs being substantially disposed in a common plane that defines the spine surface; and a sufficient amount of flexible adhesive being provided within said notches of the A and B sheets to flexibly bond the directly opposed, fully aligned A sheet and B sheet tabs, respectively, to an extent allowing all opposed sheets to open and to substantially lay flat when the book is opened.