Appeal No. 96-4018
Application 08/307,328
driven" (page 1, lines 69-71; emphasis ours). In addition,
Cummings states that the spur c' (which extends downwardly
from the bridge c) is V-shaped so as to "facilitate its free
entrance into the wood [of the tie]" (page 1, line 95;
emphasis ours) as it "is driven into the tie" (page 2, line
6). According to Cummings, the spike provides "an effective
bridge-support and spur for resisting any tendency of the
spike to loosen under lateral thrust of the rail" (page 2,
lines 16-18).
From the above, it is readily apparent that (1) the arm
or bridge c of Cummings does not contact or rest upon the rail
when it is secured to the tie as the examiner apparently
believes and (2) the appellant in Fig. 2 of Exhibit A has
correctly depicted the orientation of Cummings' spike in its
"driven" or installed position (rather than being 180 degrees
out of orientation as the examiner would have us believe). In
view of the disparate nature of Cummings' railroad spike, we
are at a complete loss as to why one of ordinary skill in this
art would have been motivated to incorporate the railroad
spike of Cummings into the device of Logsdon.
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