Appeal No. 1998-0607 Page 7
Application No. 08/506,857
acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the
corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and
equivalents thereof.
Claim 4 recites, inter alia, "means articulating the rear view [mirror] on said plurality of
assembled modules" and claim 5 includes the further limitation "wherein the means articulating
the rear view mirror on said plurality of assembled modules is arranged to enable the mirror to
be retracted with respect to said assembled plurality of modules." The "means articulating . . ."
is, as we see it, an element in a claim for a combination expressed as a means for performing a
specified function without the recital of structure or materials in support thereof. Therefore, in
accordance with the sixth paragraph of 35 U.S.C. § 112, this element shall be construed to
cover the corresponding structure described in the appellants' specification and equivalents
thereof.
Looking to the appellants' specification, the only reference to articulating or retracting
the mirrors appears on page 6 and reads as follows:
In the embodiment shown in Figure 3, the wing mirrors 52 are suitably
articulated on the wiper modules 20. They may be articulated in such a way as
to be retractable, . . .
Figure 3 illustrates the wiper modules 20 having mirrors 52 extending outwardly from a rear
edge thereof. The juncture between the mirrors 52 and modules 20, and hence any structure
purporting to articulate and/or retract the mirrors, is not shown. In short, while the appellants'
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