Appeal No. 2003-1352
Application 09/282,865
rewritten in independent form. Claims 1 through 25, 28 through
30 and 40 have been canceled.1
As noted on page 1 of the specification, appellant’s
invention relates to a wrench and fastener arrangement having a
higher torque to failure in the loosening direction than in the
tightening direction. More specifically, the invention involves
an asymmetrical fastening system comprising a fastener (e.g.,
Fig. 6) and a wrench (e.g., Fig. 5), wherein the fastener has a
single fastening periphery and the wrench has a single wrench
fastening periphery designed and configured to engage the
fastening periphery of the fastener, and wherein each of the
fastening periphery and the wrench fastening periphery includes a
plurality of tightening surfaces and a plurality of loosening
surfaces formed thereon. Independent claim 26 is representative
of the subject matter on appeal and a copy of that claim can be
found in Exhibit A of appellant’s brief (Paper No. 24).
1 Decided concurrently herewith is the appeal in appellant’s
co-pending Application No. 09/059712, filed April 13, 1998
(Appeal No. 2003-0786). Given the close nature of the subject
matter of that application and this one, the examiner should
consider, during any further prosecution of the present
application, the possibility of a provisional obviousness-type
double patenting rejection.
2
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