Appeal No. 2004-0526
Application No. 09/981,975
1. A tool for driving headed fasteners comprising:
an opening in said tool;
said opening defined by a wall of said tool, said wall
having a plurality of planar surfaces, a connection surface
connecting said planar surfaces at their ends to define said
opening, each said connection surface having a convex surface
continuous with said planar surface and a concave surface
continuous with said convex surfaces, said concave and convex
surfaces define arcs with said arcs having the same radius.[1]
The references applied in the final rejection are:
Dossier 4,581,957 Apr. 15, 1986
Colvin 4,930,378 June 05, 1990
Claims 1-4 and 7-9 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
being unpatentable over Dossier or Colvin.
Reference is made to appellants’ main and reply briefs (Paper
Nos. 16 and 22) and to the final rejection and answer (Paper Nos.
11 and 18) for the respective positions of appellants and the
examiner regarding the merits of this rejection.
1The term “said convex surfaces” (plural) in the next to the
last line of the claim lacks a proper antecedent. At oral
hearing, counsel for appellants, when queried as to whether claim
1 required each connecting surface to have more than one convex
surface, stated that the intent was to define each connection
surface as having two convex surfaces and a concave surface.
Accordingly, we interpret claim 1 as calling for the connection
surfaces to each have a first convex surface continuous with one
planar surface, a second convex surface continuous with another
planar surface, and a concave surface continuous with the first
and second convex surfaces. Upon return of this application to
the Technology Center, claim 1 should be amended to reflect this
claim interpretation.
2
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