Appeal No. 97-2222
Application 08/380,661
authority under the provisions of 37 CFR § 1.196(b), enter a
new rejection of claims 15 and 17 under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
Considering first the rejection of claims 12 and 14, it
is the examiner’s position that
Atwell discloses a nail element comprising a plate-
shaped body (5, 6 or 11) having head edges (the ends
of the members facing in and out of the page) and
lateral edges. A plurality (two) of elongated
members (1, 2) each attached at a middle region
between their ends to the lateral edges of the
plate-shaped body member such that they protrude
therefrom to function as a nail. [Final rejection,
page 3.]
It is the appellant’s position that
The ATWELL reference describes a twin nail
system that detachably connects two nails 1, 2 to
each other through the use of frangible, break-away
cross-bars 10, 11 or 5, 6 (column 1, lines 32-38 and
95-102). The crossbars are “only lightly secured to
the nails 1 and 2 (page 1, lines 95-103 and page 2,
lines 50-54).
Hence, the cross bars in ATWELL do not form a part
of the operable nail element, but rather serve only
to function as a spacer for the two nails (page 1,
lines 33-38).
In ATWELL, only the embodiment of
Figures 4 and 5 make use of rigidly secured cross
bar 10. However, the cross bar 10 is secured to the
nails immediately below the nail heads (page 2,
lines 40-44). As shown in ATWELL’s drawing figures,
the nails 1, 2 are all attached to the head-end
edges of the bars 5,6, 10 and 11. As stated in
4
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