Appeal No. 97-4206
Application 08/662,263
all of the disclosures in a reference must be evaluated for
what they fairly teach one having
ordinary skill in the art (In re Boe, 355 F.2d 961, 965, 148
USPQ 507, 510 (CCPA 1966)).
Here, as the appellants recognize, the admitted prior art
and Rohrer '143 each utilize a spring arm having a generally
perpendicularly-extending flange on the end thereof in order
to engage a notch in the base of a pivotally-mounted blade,
and thereby latch the blade in an extended position. Both
references employ cams (347 in the case of the admitted prior
art and 18 in the case of Rohrer '143) on the bases of
adjacent tools that are pivotally mounted on the same axis as
their respective blades for the purpose of engaging the end of
the flange in such a manner so as to lift the flange from the
notch, and thus unlatch the blade. The flange 318 of the
admitted prior art, while extending from spring arm 316 at
approximately a 90E angle, has a significant radius of
curvature on the inside corner (see Fig. 3). The flange of
Rohrer '143, however, extends from spring arm 13 at
8
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