Appeal No. 2001-1596
Application 09/296,102
2000 (Paper No. 7), in which the examiner rejected claims 1 to 14
as being unpatentable for failure to comply with 35 U.S.C. § 251.
Claim 15, the other claim in the application, was indicated as
being allowable if rewritten in independent form.
Background
The patent contains 14 claims. Claim 1, the only
independent claim, reads (emphasis added):
1. A hybrid vehicle powertrain, comprising:
an internal combustion engine for driving an engine output shaft
and thereby generating mechanical energy;
a generator for converting said mechanical energy into
electricity;
an electric motor driven by said electricity to output rotational
power at a motor output shaft;
a differential gear unit including at least three elements, the
first connecting to said generator, the second connecting to
a first gear and the third connecting to said internal
combustion engine;
a second gear connected to said motor output shaft; and
a counter shaft connected to an output differential gear unit and
having mounted thereon a third gear meshing with the first
and second gears; and
wherein said internal combustion engine, differential gear unit
and generator are aligned on a first axis, said electric
motor is aligned on a second axis parallel to the first
axis, said counter shaft is aligned on a third axis parallel
to the first and second axes, said output differential gear
unit is aligned on a fourth axis parallel to the first,
second and third axes, and the third axis is disposed inside
of a triangle defined by the first, second and fourth axes
viewed on end.
A review of the file of the original application shows that
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