Appeal No. 2001-2595
Application 09/245,640
a regular spaced hole pattern for supporting work piece holders
as being equally useful in the environment of Hennessey’s vise-
type clamping apparatus, a position we wholeheartedly agree with.
As for appellant’s assertions that one skilled in the art of
vise plates would not look to a workbench to improve his plates,
and that the examiner has employed hindsight in the proposed
combination of Hennessey and Meyer, we find such arguments to be
unpersuasive. In the first place, appellant has not provided a
cogent explanation of exactly why one skilled in the art of vise
plates would not look to a clamping workbench like that of Meyer
to improve his vise plates. Moreover, like appellant, both
Hennessey and Meyer disclose a work piece clamping and
positioning device which depends upon the exact positioning of
work holders mounted in holes of a work surface for holding a
work piece in a precisely selected position with reference to an
operating tool. Like appellant, both of the applied patents also
seek to provide such a system that is quick and simple to use and
thus minimizes the skill required and errors in work set up,
while allowing the work holders to be quickly and easily
reoriented for another operation, removed quickly to provide an
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