Appeal No. 2003-0106
Application 09/502,680
on the blades of plows and graders. As noted on page 2 of the
specification, replacement of such plates traditionally involves
two workers manually holding the replacement plate off of the
ground and moving the plate until the attachment holes in the
plate align with the corresponding attachment holes defined in
the blade, while a third worker inserts bolts through the aligned
attachment holes. By contrast, appellant provides a device for
assisting a worker with manipulation of the plates during
installation and removal thereof. Even more specifically, the
present application has an objective of providing a system
(method) that permits the plates to be replaced by only one
worker, without requiring the worker to manually hold the plates
off the ground during replacement or removal. Independent claim
28 is representative of the subject matter on appeal and a copy
of that claim may be found in Appendix 1 of appellants’ brief.
The prior art references relied upon by the examiner in
rejecting the appealed claims are:
Shannon 3,275,166 Sept. 27, 1966
Pistole 5,667,207 Sept. 16, 1997
In addition, the examiner has relied upon the disclosure
found at page 1, line 21 through page 2, line 14 of appellants’
2
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