Appeal No. 97-1153
Application 08/335,939
Daniell teaches the use of separate fastener means 28,
24 with a clamping link 22. It would have been obvious
to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time
the invention was made to modify Potier [sic, Poitier]
to have slots which have a length greater than their
width, separate first and second fastener means,
separate third and fourth fastener means and separate
clamping links in view of Daniell in order to provide
adjustability of the fastener means on the disc-like
clamping member, thus resulting in adjustability
between the clamped members and to provide a means of
supporting a variety of shaped members to be clamped by
the clamping link/separate fasteners assembly and
avoiding the need to manufacture many U-bars (b2) with
different accommodating shapes for the various shaped
members. [See answer, page 3; footnote added.]
We will not support the examiner’s position. Initially, we
cannot agree with the examiner’s finding that Poitier in Fig. 11
teaches a disc-like clamping member having four slots. Instead,
as plainly depicted in Figs. 10 and 11, the members a are two1
separate, generally rectangular plate-like members (note also,
e.g., translation, page 3, line 2) which, instead of having
“slots” as labeled by the examiner in the copy of Fig. 11
attached to the answer, simply have round holes therein (note
also translation, page 5, lines 11 and 12). We further fail to
find any suggestion for modifying Poitier’s embodiment of Fig. 11
to include slots having a length greater than their width in view
of Poitier’s embodiment of Fig. 42. More specifically, in the
3
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