Appeal 2006-1555
Application 10/101,228
Furthermore, it is not clear that there remains two longitudinally
juxtaposed peaks after the screw threads are cut in the knurling. In such a
case, the examiners peak-to-peak groove is merely a slanted valley that
extend along some portion of a peak’s profile. To the extent the examiner is
relying on the peak-to-peak profile as a groove, we note that the undisturbed
knurling of Figures 1, 3, 5 and 7 is merely an intermediate stage of
manufacture of the Ricca fastener. It would not have been obvious to
combine an unfinished fastener profile into the finished automotive product
that is Krawczak.
Additionally, we agree with the appellant that there is no suggestion
or motivation to combine the teachings of Krawczak and Ricca. The
examiner points to Ricca at Col. 2, ll. 63-67 as a suggestion or motivation. In
fact, we find that this disclosure teaches away from the combination in that it
clearly states that when the knurled portion reaches the screw threads the
fastener will jam on the threads of the mating element. It is unclear how a
knurled intermediate member could function to provide adjustability if it
jammed when the knurled portion reached the threads on the mating
element.
The disclosure of Fox in no way ameliorates the problems we have
encountered with the Krawczak and Ricca references.
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Last modified: September 9, 2013