Appeal No. 2006-2074
Application No. 10/158,197
Thus, there is a strong prima facie case of obviousness of the
appellants’ claimed invention over Sanelli in view of Howell.
Moreover, Bond discloses placing a symbol, indicator or indicia on
the butt end of tool handles so that tool users can see the symbol, indicator
or indicia when looking down at the tools in a tool pouch and thereby select
the correct tool from the pouch (col. 3, lines 41-44; col. 5, line 64 – col. 6,
line 6). The indicia indicate the configuration and orientation of the tool
head (abstract). Bond’s disclosure that the tools can be screwdrivers and
“pliers, hammers, wrenches and the like” (col. 3, lines 56-58) would have
fairly suggested, to one of ordinary skill in the art, that the “and the like”
tool can be a knife. Thus, Bond further would have fairly suggested, to one
of ordinary skill in the art, placing a symbol on the butt end of Sanelli’s
knife handle to indicate the configuration or orientation of the blade.
The appellants argue that Bond, which relates to hand held tools, is
nonanalogous art (brief, pages 9-10). Bond is analogous art because it is
reasonably pertinent to the problem with which the inventors were involved
of identifying knives from their butt ends.
Arnold discloses placing numeric size indicia on a sleeve at the end of
a wrench socket so that a user can quickly identify the size of the socket (col.
3, lines 35-42). This disclosure would have fairly suggested, to one of
ordinary skill in the art, the use of numeric symbols at the end portions of
Sanelli’s knife handles to identify the size of the knives. The appellants
argue that Arnold, which relates to wrench sockets, is nonanalogous art
(brief, pages 9-10). Arnold is analogous art because it is reasonably
17
Page: Previous 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007