Appeal No. 1999-2065
Application 08/651,502
specifically, the rack (14), identified by the examiner as
corresponding to the “trigger
assembly” of appellants’ claim 45, does not have a distal
portion that is engageable with an angled camming portion of
the actuator or staple ejecting mechanism in the closed
position of the anvil (b) and staple magazine (a) to
facilitate actuation of a staple pusher and wherein the distal
portion is “disengaged with the angled camming portion in
response to movement of said anvil and said magazine to the
open position of the jaws to prevent actuation of the pusher”
(emphasis added), as in appellants’ claim 45.
A functional limitation must be evaluated and con-
sidered, just like any other limitation of the claim, for what
it fairly conveys to a person of ordinary skill in the
pertinent art in the context in which it is used. A
functional limitation is often used in association with an
element, ingredient, or step of a process to define a
particular capability or purpose that is
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