Appeal No. 1998-1454 Page 12
Application No. 08/422,840
12). To anticipate the claims, the Seliger apparatus, as a
whole, must be configured and constructed to permit these
functions and relationships.
Seliger's housing (31) is not engageable with an end of a
crankable shaft of a winch as required by the claims, because
the sleeve (24) and drive shaft (27) of the apparatus extend
outwardly from one end thereof and the handle (12') is
provided at the other end thereof. Further, the thrust member
(34) and
spring (28) act internally of the housing (31) to engage the
sleeve (24) and are not capable of locking the housing onto
the end of a crankable shaft of a winch as required by the
claims.
While the examiner did not rely on this portion of Seliger
in rejecting the claims, we do note that Seliger discloses a
cranking device comprising a crank (41) and a fitting (40)
having a square-shaped socket for engaging the square-shaped
pin extension (18) of the drive shaft (27). However, while
the fitting socket may be capable of being engaged with an
appropriately sized cylindrical shaft of a winch "in a loose
fitting relationship such that the engagement member may be
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