Appeal No. 1998-1266 Page 7
Application No. 08/354,459
the initial hole in appellants’ method. Reference is made to
column 1, lines 21-23, and the paragraph bridging columns 6
and 7 of the DeFries specification.
As the axial movement of DeFries’ tool continues, the
frustoconical portion engages and grinds the periphery of the
drilled hole to enlarge the hole and to completely eliminate
the delamination damage produced by forming the initial hole
as disclosed in column 7, lines 4-9, of DeFries’ specification
and shown in Figure 4 of DeFries’ patent drawings. Appellants
have not contested any of the foregoing findings. The
recitation in claim 5 of moving the cutting tool relative to
the edge of the formed hole is broad enough to read on the
axial movement of DeFries’ combination tool as described
supra. Accordingly, the claimed tool-moving step does not
distinguish from DeFries, making it unnecessary to rely on
Hirabayashi for a suggestion of this feature. In any case,
Hirabayashi suggests the concept of widening an initial hole
in a sheet material by moving a cutting tool relative to the
edge of the hole for the purpose of eliminating damage
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