Appeal No. 2004-1920 Page 5
Application No. 09/302,1999
Applying this guidance to the situation at hand leads us to conclude that this rejection of
claim 1 cannot be sustained. Our reasoning follows.
Moeller discloses a hammer 6 in combination with a stem 5. The objective of the
invention is to provide “a tool for performing pulling, driving or rotating operations” on
the stem (column 1, lines 1-4). An attachment screw 12 is provided at the end of the
stem to allow the element which is to be pulled, driven or rotated to be attached to the
stem, and a boss 9 is fixedly attached about the mid-portion of the stem. Boss 9 is not
annular, but has a flat area 11 (Figure 3). Hammer 6 comprises a sleeve-like member
having a hand-grasping cylindrical part 14 with an annular flange 16 at its upper end, a
passage 18 through its center, and a lower end that includes an inward-facing shoulder
19. Passage 18 terminates at its upper end in internal threads 17 that receive the
threads of a removable stop collar 7 which is provided with a bottom edge surface 26.
Passage 18 is not annular, but has a flat side 20 that cooperates with flat area 11 of
boss 9 to cause the hammer and the stem to be locked together when the hammer is
rotated but slidable when the hammer is moved longitudinally. With collar 7 removed,
hammer 6 is slipped over stem 8, whereafter the collar is screwed into place to anchor
the hammer on the stem.
In operation, pushing force is applied to stem 8 by sliding hammer 6 downwardly
until shoulder 26 of stop collar 7 impacts the upper face of flange 16, pulling force is
applied by sliding hammer 6 upwardly until the upper surface of inward-facing shoulder
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Last modified: November 3, 2007