Appeal No. 2000-1279
Application No. 09/053,025
engine power per kilogram of vehicle weight.” Additionally,
and of particular importance, is the lack of any teaching in4
the applied references proffered by the examiner of an engine
having fewer than three reciprocating pistons, a specific and
express limitation of independent claims 1 and 10. The
examiner
dismisses the number of “cylinders” as a matter of engineering
design or a matter of design choice (final rejection, page 4),
but later contends that “it is known to put motorcycle engines
into very small vehicles” (answer, page 5). Quite 5
4As appellant’s “SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION” section of the
specification reveals a “single cylinder” engine is employed
in a vehicle.
5The “BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION” section of appellant’s
specification (pages 1 through 7) offers an extensive
discussion of the state of the art, at the time of the present
invention. In the background section, appellant mentions
Japanese micro cars and hybrid vehicles. As to the Japanese
micro cars, the main brief (page 12) clarifies for us that
these cars have three or four cylinders. On the other hand, we
are informed by the background section (specification, page 2)
that hydrid vehicles have one, typically very small engine for
efficiently generating base load power requirements of
approxiately 10 kilowatts. It is not apparent how many
cylinders this very small engine has. We note that, apart from
dependent claims 8 and 16, independent claims 1, 10, 18, and
21 are not restricted to the claimed engine being the only
motive power source of a vehicle, i.e., a non-hybrid vehicle.
7
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