Appeal No. 2001-1608
Application 08/619,699
portion 32. Toth teaches that these operating widths can be
sized under either the metric system or the English system,
with one of the widths having a standard size for
accommodating a standard size socket wrench (see Toth at
column 4, line 47 et seq.).
The Anapliotis fastener is a bone screw 1 comprising a
shaft 3 bearing external threads 2 and a head 4 having
hexagonal recesses 6 and 7 separated by a step (see Figure 1).
The recess 6 has a diameter of 8 mm corresponding to a wrench
width of SW 5 and the recess 7 has a diameter of 5 mm
corresponding to a wrench width of SW 3.5 (see page 9 in the
translation).
In applying each of these references against independent
claim 4, the examiner concedes that neither meets the claim
limitation requiring differently sized formations with “one of
the formations corresponding to a standard metric wrench size
and the other of the formations corresponding to a standard
English-system wrench size.” Nonetheless, the examiner
concludes that “it would have been an obvious matter of design
choice to alter the sizes of the [Toth and Anapliotis]
formations in order to correspond with standard metric and
4
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