Appeal No. 2000-0818 Page 4
Application No. 08/949,917
The second issue concerns the manner in which bearings that support the base
segment are disclosed. As we understand the examiner’s position, it is that the wrench is
inoperable because the bearings that support the base segment are locked into the
grooves in which they are mounted and therefore will not allow the wrench to be opened.
According to the examiner, this is because such opening will cause the base segment to
bind owing to the interacting grooves and bearing segments. The examiner points to
Figure 2 in support of this conclusion.
On pages 7-11 of the Brief, the appellant has aptly argued why this is not the case,
and we find ourselves generally in agreement with his explanation. As the appellant has
pointed out, mounting the arcuate bearing segments on pivot pins allows them to
compensate for the movement of the base segment with respect to the arms of the wrench,
and therefore there is no binding. It appears to us that the manner in which the invention is
illustrated in Figure 2 is at least somewhat misleading in that it does not show where the
pivot pins are located when the wrench is in the open orientation. However, the location of
these pins with respect to the other structure when the wrench is in the closed orientation is
quite clear from Figure 4, and the artisan would, in our view, gain an understanding from
this and the other Figures, when considered in the light of the specification, where they
should be in Figure 2 and how they operate.
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