Appeal No. 2002-1720 Page 5
Application No. 09/100,494
Johnson, 558 F.2d 1008, 1016, 194 USPQ 187, 194 (CCPA 1977). We note at the
outset that the examiner’s cited definition of nails as “a slender usually pointed and
headed fastener” on page 7 of the answer is not complete, as Merriam-Webster’s
Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition (Merriam-Webster, Inc. 1999) defines “nail” as “a
slender usually pointed and headed fastener designed to be pounded in.” We also note
that Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition (Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1988) defines “nail” as “a tapered piece of metal, commonly pointed and having a
flattened head, driven with a hammer, and used to hold pieces or parts together, to
hang things on, etc.” While it may theoretically be possible to pound or drive the
resilient plastic pins of Fisher with a hammer to hold parts together,1 thereby using
Fisher’s pins in the same manner as nails, one of ordinary skill in the art would not
consider the resilient plastic pins disclosed by Fisher to be “nails” in the context of
appellant’s invention, especially in light of the reference to “20d common nails” in
appellant’s specification (page 1, line 23, and page 3, line 27).
Inasmuch as Lee does not disclose nails and the plastic pins 30 of Fisher are not
“nails” as called for in claim 1, it follows that the combination of Lee and Fisher is
insufficient to have suggested the subject matter of claim 11. The examiner’s rejection
1 Given the intentional resilience characteristic of the pins disclosed by Fisher to permit the pins to
deflect and bounce back so as to avoid stress concentrations upon impact, it is not even clear that such
use is possible.
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