Appeal No. 1998-3314
Application 08/666,093
anticipated by Cornell.
Cornell’s valve member 17 and arm 29 are separate and
distinct elements. One skilled in the art would readily
understand that in assembling the arm of Cornell to the valve
member, the upper end of arm 29 is initially positioned in the
opening 32 of the valve member and then retained therein by
pin
31. It reasonably appears that arm 29 of Cornell may be
separated from the valve member while leaving both the arm and
valve member fully intact by simply reversing this process,
that is, by first removing the pin 31 by any appropriate means
(e.g., drilling it out). In that the separation of
appellants’ shaft 29 from the valve member appears to require
the removal of at least one element (e.g., nut 32) in order to
allow for removal of the shaft, we do not regard claim 25 as
being of such limited scope as to exclude an arrangement like
that disclosed by Cornell where pin 31 must first be removed
in order to allow for separation of the arm from the valve
member.
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