Appeal No. 2001-0610 Page 7
Application No. 08/931,932
further teaches that the tightening torque is applied by means of a wrench, not shown,
which is placed on surfaces 17 of the nut driver member (column 2, line 52 et seq.). Thus,
the wrench, which is not attached to the nut driver member, serves as the “handle” to apply
the torque.
Finally, claim 1 also requires a fastener drive structure having a drive element
adjacent one end and a cam element adjacent the other end. Ohlson discloses a “nut
member” 3 that has a cam in the form of ratchet teeth 11 adjacent one end and an
internally threaded fastener portion adjacent the other end, the latter to be tightened “on a
complementary threaded bolt or stud” (column 1, lines 31 and 32). The examiner attempts
to construe the construction of Ohlson’s nut member to meet these terms of the claim,
apparently by reading “drive element” on the portion of the nut member that attaches the
cam and the threaded fastener portion together, although this has not been explained in
detail (see Answer, page 3). It is our opinion that this is not a tenable position, even if the
claim language is considered in the abstract rather than in the context of the appellant’s
disclosure, if for no other reason than it requires the one-piece nut member 5 to be
artificially divided into separate elements, that is, the fastener portion to be considered to
be apart from the rest of the nut member, which flies in the face of the concept of the
Ohlson invention. The fact of the matter is that in the Ohlson system it is the fastener being
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