Appeal No. 2002-0882
Application 09/161,146
Showalter’s transfer case is not a semi-automatic transmission
within the meaning of claim 1,2 and thus does not embody a clutch
of the sort recited or emission to the driver of an
acknowledgment signal that re-engagement of the clutch may be
properly effected. To overcome these deficiencies in Showalter,
the examiner turns to Morscheck and the admitted prior art.
Morscheck discloses a semi-automatic mechanical change gear
transmission
having means to sense manual selection of a particular
gear ratio, means to sense and/or calculate the
rotational speed of the jaw clutch members associated
with the selected gear ratio, a power synchronization
device for selectively accelerating and/or decelerating
the rotational speed of input shaft driven transmission
members, preferably independent of the rotational speed
of the prime mover, and a device to inhibit movement of
the shift rails until synchronization of the clutch
members of the selected jaw clutch is sensed [column 1,
lines 10 through 20].
The admitted prior art encompasses a transmission that
produces, after a shifting operation is completed, an
acknowledgment informing the driver that re-engagement of the
clutch may be effected.
2 See the above reproduced definition from the appellants’
specification for the term “semi-automatic transmission.” Words
defined in the specification must be given the same meaning when
used in a claim. McGill, Inc. v. John Zink Co., 736 F.2d 666,
674, 221 USPQ 944, 949 (Fed. Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1037
(1984).
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