Appeal No. 2002-0487
Application No. 09/377,371
apparatus for improving traction of a tire attached to a wheel.
Stokke has a traction providing portion 7, a holding-tightening
strap 8 and a buckle or tightening yoke 10. Controlled actuation
of the buckle allows the strap 8 to be incrementally shortened to
fasten the traction member in operative position on a tire.
Stokke does not show a ratchet used to tighten the strap 8.
Dickerson, on the other hand, shows a strap used to fasten a
vehicle tire to a flat bed truck carrying the vehicle the tire is
attached to. As shown in figure 1, ratchet 22 is used to connect
a strap to a tail chain 24. The ratchet makes it possible to
tighten the device securely with enough tension to cause a slight
indentation in the tire. The ratchet allows the user to tension
the device as much as possible without worry of damaging the
vehicle or breaking the device 10. Thus, Dickerson discloses
that it is old and well known to use a ratchet to tighten a strap
to very high tension levels because of the mechanical advantage
the ratchet obtains. The difference between the claimed subject
matter and Dickerson is that Dickerson is not concerned with
connecting a traction member to a tire of a vehicle.
In our view it would have been obvious at the time the
invention was made to substitute the ratchet 22 disclosed in
Dickerson for the buckle and tightening yoke 10 in Stokke. The
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