Appeal No. 2004-0106
Application 09/907,974
configured to [be] attached to the drive. The
attachment end of the socket is configured to attach to
any one of the plurality of the drive tiers, thereby
allowing the user to change size of drives and/or size
of the sockets on the same wrench [column 1, line 58,
through column 2, line 5].
In applying Jarvis against the appellant’s claims, the
examiner focuses on the assembly shown in Figure 51. This
assembly includes “a conventional socket wrench extension 500 and
adapter 505” (column 8, lines 35 and 36). As depicted in Figure
51, the adapter 505 has a single cavity at one end for receiving
an end of the socket wrench extension 500 and inner and outer
cavities at the other end for receiving an end of a slidable
drive adapter 187. It is not disputed that each of the cavities
in the adapter 505 has a rectangular (square) cross-section.
According to the examiner (see pages 3 through 5 in the
answer), Jarvis’ adapter 505 constitutes a socket meeting all of
the limitations in independent claim 24 except for the one
requiring the receiving end cavity to be “hexagonal.” The
examiner considers the cavity in Jarvis’ adapter 505 for
receiving the extension 500 to be a receiving end cavity, but
concedes that it is rectangular rather than hexagonal.
To overcome this deficiency in Jarvis, the examiner turns to
either Rexford or Hsiao. Each discloses socket members (32 in
Rexford and 40 in Hsiao) having hexagonal cavities at either end
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