COMMISSIONER'S DECISION
Obviousness - Improvements in Scaffolding
The scaffolding comprises upright supports, longitudinally extending bearers
or legers and transversely extending bearers or transoms, all of which are
connected together to form a rigid structure. A proposed amendment to claim
1 was accepted by the applicant.
Final Action - Affirmed - modification accepted
*********************
This decision deals with a request for review by the Commissioner of
Patents of the Examiner's Final Action dated July 14, 1977, on application
206,165 (class 304-15), and is entitled "Improvements in or Relating to
Builders Scaffolding."
The application relates to builders scaffolding of the kind comprising upright
supports, longitudinally extending bearers or ledgers and transversely extend-
ing bearers or transoms, all of which are connected together to form a rigid
structure. Figure 1, shown below, is directed to one aspect of the inven-
tion:
(See formula I)
In the Final Action the examiner rejected the claim in view of the following
Canadian patents:
Canadian Patents
442,184 June 17,1947 Vocisano
442,715 July 8,1947 Alderfer
615,841 Mar. 27,1957 Russell
722,066 Nov. 23,1965 Alziari
763,839 July 25,1967 Squire
The patent to Russell discloses a telescopic jack post. Squire shows a base
jack for a scaffold. Alziari shows a sleeve mounted on a vertical form
support post. The patents to Alderfer and Vocisano show additional examples
of telescoping jack posts having both discrete and continuous adjustments.
In the Final Action the examiner had, inter alia, this to say:
...
In the patent to Squire a base jack for a scaffold is combined
with discrete pin-in-hole adjustment. True, as applicant
states the tubular members cannot be rotated under load in the
patent to Squire however this patent states:
Screw jacks 18 are provided at the bottom of the
base frames 14-15 for levelling of the frames and
the shoring scaffold while screw jacks 19 are
provided at the top of the extension frames 16-17
for fine adjustment of the head of the shoring
scaffold.
Whether the load supporting nut 77 is rotated as in the patent
to Squire or whether the tubing itself is rotated as in the
present application is not considered a patentable distinction.
The patent to Squire also shows through holes 29 for adjustable
reception of extension legs 36-27.
The patent to Alziari shows in figures 1 and 2 a sleeve mounted
on a vertical form support post by a pin-in-hole attachment.
A screw jack is mounted on the sleeve for continuous adjustment.
Applicant states in his reply that his support bracket of
metal strip can be manufactured as a pressing which is
relatively inexpensive and which does not require threading.
However, whether the screw thread is at one end of the tube
as in the present application, or a threaded bracket as in the
patent to Alziari is not considered a patentable distinction.
Screw threading is required at some point to produce the obvious
result. The limiting factor, when considering the strength
of the pin to support the load of the scaffold is considered to
be shear strength, not bending moment as stated in applicant's
disclosure.
The patents to Alderfer and Vocisano show additional examples
of telescoping jack posts having both discrete and continuous
adjustment. Applicant states that these references are totally
irrelevant, however, the present disclosure states that:
"Furthermore, again without modification, the jack
could be applied to a prop."
Thus the two situations are closely related in the present
application. They are also common knowledge in the prior art
and presented in numerous references.
All claims are therefore again rejected as directed to sub-
ject matter entirely obvious in view of the prior art. In
addition, nothing in applicant's disclosure is seen that
would require the exercise of inventive ingenuity.
...
In response to the Final Action the agent present his position (in part):
...
The present invention relates to a base jack for the tubular
standards of a scaffold structure, which jack, in comparison
to the cited references, provides, inter alia, the following
novel and important advantages:
a) The present base jack enables both coarse and fine
vertical adjustment by means solely of the base jack itself;
b) The present base jack enables such coarse and fine ad-
justment in a scaffolding comprising tubular stands which are
not in any way modified for use with the base jack and which
are all of the same diameter; and
c) By employing a bracket slidable along a tube for support-
ing the lower most end of the standard, such end can be
supported at any of a plurality of positions distributed
along substantially the entire length of the tube. Conse-
quently, the standard can, when required, be supported at a con-
siderably lower position than would be possible with a jack
employing two tubes telescopically displaceable for coarse ad-
justment, as discussed in greater detail below.
It is emphasized that not a single one of the cited references
provides a single one of these three advantages.
Moreover, as will be more readily apparent from the following
discussion, these three advantages are not the only advantages
of the present invention.
With respect to the Russell reference, which relates to a
telescopic jack post and not to a base jack, the Examiner
has commented that the combination of screw and pin-in-hole
adjustment is old and well known in many and diverse situations,
the cited references being examples.
However, it does not follow from this that it would be obvious
to the man skilled in the art that it would be possible, or even
desirable, that the Russell jack post could be modified to
provide the present invention.
In fact, neither the Russell patent nor any of the other cited
references even anticipates the basic concept of combining
screw and pin-in-hole adjustment in the base jack. Whether or
not it would be difficult for the man skilled in the art to imple-
ment this combination in a practical manner after the basic concept
has been concerned in no way detracts from the inventive merit of
the concept itself....
...
Consequently, to arrive at the present invention from the
Russell reference, it is necessary to conceive the following
modifications of the Russell jack post:-
Firstly, it is necessary to conceive the concept of a base
jack enabling both coarse and fine adjustment which can be
inserted into the lower end of a tubular standard.
Secondly, it is necessary to realize that the jack post taught
by Russell can be changed into a base jack by turning it upside
down.
Thirdly, it is necessary to abandon the concept of two telescop-
ically adjustable tubes, as taught by Russell, and instead adopt
the concept of a single post with means for adjustably support-
ing the standard on such single post.
Fourthly, it is necessary to abandon Russell's teachings of a
collar I having reverse annular cups, which is an essential
feature of claim 1 of the Russell patent, and to substitute
therefor a bracket.
It is respectfully but emphatically submitted that such numerous
and extensive modifications, which would leave very little
remaining of the teachings of the Russell patent, would not be
obvious to a man skilled in the art without hindsight knowledge
of the present invention.
...
On March 7, 1978 the examiner referred this application to the Board and stated
that in view of "persuasive arguments" he was willing to allow the claims
providing the subject matter of claim 3 was combined with that of claim 1.
We carefully reviewed the prosecution of the application and decided that such
an amendment would, in our view. place the claims in allowable form. Accord-
ingly, we notified the agent Mr. Brian Long. He in turn, on March 13, 1978,
submitted a counter proposed amendment to the Board where claims 1 and 3 were
amended to read:
1. A base jack for the tubular standards of a scaffold structure
which comprises a tube having a plurality of spaced pairs of
transverse holes, a support bracket slidable lengthwise of said
tube and having a single pair of transverse holes arranged to
coincide with any one of said pairs of holes in said tube, said
support bracket comprising a metal strip which is shaped to
present a box-like projection, the free ends of said strip being
of arcuate formation to closely fit round said tube, a locking
pin provided to extend through the coincident holes in said
bracket and said tube to selectively position said bracket on
said tube, and a base plate supporting a screw threaded rod which
is in threaded engagement with a screw thread at one end of said
tube, the other end of said tube being adapted telescopically to
fit into one end of a tubular standard, wherein the support
bracket is in direct sliding engagement with the tube, said support
bracket having means at the uppermost edge of the bracket to
provide a bearing surface for said one end of the tubular standard.
3. A base jack as claimed in claim 2, in which the means for pro-
viding a bearing surface on the bracket comprise an annular plate
secured to said uppermost edge.
We reviewed the proposed amendments to claims 1 and 3 and accepted them after
one additional restriction "... annular bearing" was added to claim 1. The
applicant submitted the appropriate amendment on March 15, 1978. On April
3, 1978 the applicant submitted a further amendment cancelling claim 6.
Claims 1 to 5 are now in the application.
In the circumstances we find it unnecessary to comment further because the
amendments made and the arguments presented overcome the rejection in the
Final Action. We recommend that the amendments to claims 1 and 3 be accepted.
J.F. Hughes
Assistant Chairman
Patent Appeal Board, Canada
I have reviewed the prosecution of this application and agree with the
recommendations of the Patent Appeal Board. Accordingly, I accept the
claims presently on file in this application. This application is returned
to the examiner for resumption of prosecution.
Agent for Applicant
J.H.A. Gariepy
Commissioner of Patents Bell & Adams
151 Sparks Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 5E3
Dated at Hull, Quebec
this 13th. day of April, 1978