Patent ID: 7877949

Claim:
A roof covering including a plurality of successive generally horizontal courses of laminated shingles, the shingles in each course being laid in a side-by-side relationship and horizontally offset from the shingles in adjacent courses, each laminated shingle comprising: an overlay member having front and rear surfaces, the overlay member including a headlap portion and a butt portion, the butt portion including a plurality of tabs separated by cutouts, each tab including a layer of granules on the front surface forming a generally uniform color blend, and each cutout being narrow when compared to the width of the tabs to provide an overall roof covering appearance of a natural slate roof; and an underlay member having a front surface attached to the rear surface of the overlay member; wherein each tab has a single color blend, the color blends of some of the tabs of each shingle being a color blend different from the color blend of others of the tabs; and wherein one of the color blends of the tabs occurs more frequently than any of the other color blends of the tabs, thereby defining a predominant tab color blend, with the frequency of the tabs of the predominant color blend in the roof covering being sufficiently prevalent to provide the roof covering with an appearance that simulates a natural slate roof.