Appeal No. 2001-0610 Page 6
Application No. 08/931,932
Independent claim 1 is directed to a “torque limited applicator,” which the appellant
has disclosed as being a tool for applying a desired amount of torque to a separate
fastener, such as a nut (Abstract; specification, pages 1-3, 12 and 13). As the appellant
has correctly pointed out, the Ohlson invention differs from the invention recited in the
preamble of claim 1 in that it is not an applicator for limiting the torque that can be applied
to a fastener, but a fastener incorporating means for limiting the torque that can be applied
to it. Thus, it differs conceptually from the claimed invention.
Moreover, the subject matter recited in independent claim 1 does not read on the
Ohlson device. The appellant’s claim 1 recites a torque applying element having a tubular
body and a handle, with the tubular body comprising at least two internal deformable
followers. The examiner has considered the nut driver member 5 of Ohlson to be the
claimed torque applying element, and we agree that this element has the tubular body and
deformable cam followers required by the claim. However, the appellant urges that the
Ohlson device is anticipatory because it is not provided with a handle (Brief, page 8), to
which the examiner has offered no rebuttal, and so this argument stands uncontroverted. In
the absence of persuasive argument by the examiner on this point, we are constrained to
agree with the appellant that Ohlson lacks this claimed feature. In this regard, we note that
while Ohlson instructs the artisan that the nut member is first finger tightened, which could
be accomplished by grasping the flat surfaces 17 of nut driver member, the reference
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