Appeal No. 97-2911
Application 08/399,836
narrow shank 1) cannot be considered bulbous portions as
called for by claim 10. This is so because claim 10
specifically calls for each end of the handle to have a pair
of opposing forked arms connected by bridge means, and further
calls for a bulbous portion to be positioned “near” each
bridge means. This makes clear that the claimed bulbous
portions are separate and distinct from the bridge means and
forked arms.
Second, Engquist’s tapered transition portions by
themselves cannot be considered bulbous portions under any
fair reading of the term “bulbous.” In this instance, an
appropriate definition for “bulbous” is “resembling a bulb:
rounded” and an appropriate definition for “bulb” is “a
rounded projection or part.” Because the tapered transition3
portions of Engquist between the handle shank and the bridge
portions are not arcuate in logitudinal cross section, it is
our view that they are not in any sense “rounded” so as to
“resemble a bulb.” They are, at best, frustoconical.
Webster’s New Riverside University Dictionary (The3
Riverside Publishing Company © 1984).
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