Appeal No. 2001-2649
Application No. 09/358,926
1 and 2 of Lienard. Therefore, we fail to find that Lienard
teaches or suggests "a conductive hollow, internally threaded
female connector member integral with said conductive end
terminal and housing said bullet-shaped wire splaying end" as
required by Appellant's claims 1 and 3. Therefore, we will not
sustain the Examiner's rejection of claims 1 and 3 under
35 U.S.C. § 103.
B. Rejection of Claim 4 under 35 U.S.C. § 103
Upon our review of the scope of Appellant's claim 4, we fail
to find that the language requires a one-piece construction for
the first connector part as claimed. In particular, we note that
Appellant's claim 4 recites
a first connector part comprising a conductive bullet-
shaped wire-splaying member, a selected one of said end
terminals, and a hollow internally threaded female
connector member selected to said conductive end
terminal and housing said bullet-shaped wire splaying
end.
The term "selected" has a broader meaning than the term
"integral" as recited in Appellant's claim 1. The American
Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition, defines "selected"
as "singled out in preference; chosen." Thus, we find that the
claim language does not require that the conductive bullet-shaped
wire splaying member is an integrated single piece with the
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