Appeal No. 2003-0265 Page 7
Application No. 09/105,150
wherein the stake creates a deformed portion of the external thread of the screw having
a reduced width between adjacent crests thereof relative to other portions of the
external thread.
Based on our analysis and review of Crowther and claim 16, it is our opinion that
the only difference is the limitation of deforming a portion of the external thread
adjacent the second end of the shank of the screw to limit the amount the screw can be
backed out of the bore of the terminal by staking the second end along a line extending
across the second end and offset from and perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the
shank.
Obviousness of claimed subject matter
With regard to these differences, the examiner determined (final rejection, pp. 2-
4) that such differences would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to
a person of ordinary skill in the art. The appellants argue throughout both briefs that
the applied prior art does not suggest the claimed subject matter.
Evidence of a suggestion, teaching, or motivation to modify a reference may flow
from the prior art references themselves, the knowledge of one of ordinary skill in the
art, or, in some cases, from the nature of the problem to be solved, see Pro-Mold &
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