Appeal No. 2004-0765
Application 09/732,641
Inc. v. Harris Corp., 156 F.3d 1182, 1187, 48 USPQ2d 1001, 1005
(Fed. Cir. 1998)).
As for the appellant’s position that Mark’s handle does
not include the aforementioned means for engaging the hub such as
a plurality of fingers, we reiterate with approval the examiner’s
point that the snap ring 42 of patentee’s previously mentioned
handle subassembly includes a plurality of fingers or tangs 82
for engaging the hub in order to retain the handle thereon
pursuant to each of the independent claims before us. Contrary
to the appellant’s belief and analogous to our reasoning above,
nothing in these claims excludes an embodiment wherein the
recited engaging/retaining means or plurality of fingers
comprises a discrete component such as patentee’s snap ring 42.
With specific respect to the independent claim 7 requirement for
“a handle having integral means for axially retaining the handle
on the hub,” we consider, as did the examiner, the term
“integral” to be sufficiently broad as to embrace a construction
of constituent parts which have been unified as in Mark’s handle
subassembly. See In re Hotte, 475 F.2d 644, 647, 177 USPQ 326,
328 (CCPA 1973); In re Kohno, 391 F.2d 959, 960 n.4, 157 USPQ
5
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