Appeal No. 2002-0947 Page 3
Application No. 09/518,835
adjacent stripping openings of equal size. As explained on page 5 of appellant’s
specification, a commonly used type of sheathed cable includes two insulated 12 gauge
wires and a bare ground wire and an advantage of the provision of two adjacent
stripping openings equally sized for stripping 12 gauge wires is that it allows a worker to
strip both of the 12 gauge wires at one time.
Yang, the sole prior art reference relied upon by the examiner as evidence of
obviousness, discloses a wire crimping and stripping tool comprising pivoted jaws and a
wire stripping section 38 formed by a top face 381 of a first elongated member 31
provided with a wire stripping teethed edge and a downwardly inclined top face 382 of a
second elongated member 32 also provided with a teethed edge. The relative sizes of
the openings formed between the teeth of the faces 381, 382 of the wire stripping
section 38 of Yang cannot be determined with any certainty from the inconsistent
illustrations thereof in Figure 4, which appears to show a continuous graduation of
openings from smallest to largest with increasing distance from the pivot, and Figure 5,
which appears to show random size openings. The examiner’s assertion on page 3 of
the final rejection that “it appears that some of the holes in the wire-stripping [section]
are equal in size” is based upon speculation.2 As is evident from Yang’s discussion of
the background of the invention in column 1, lines 41-44, the recesses of the wire
2 Rejections based on 35 U.S.C. § 103 must rest on a factual basis. In making such a rejection,
the examiner has the initial duty of supplying the requisite factual basis and may not, because of doubts
that the invention is patentable, resort to speculation, unfounded assumptions or hindsight reconstruction
to supply deficiencies in the factual basis. In re Warner, 379 F.2d 1011, 1017, 154 USPQ 173, 178
(CCPA 1967), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 1057 (1968).
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