Appeal No. 2004-1378
Application No. 09/761,724
Appellants' claimed invention is directed to an inter-axle
differential assembly for a vehicular power transmission unit.
The assembly includes a lubrication pump which provides flow of
lubricant only during the differential action between the input
and output shafts. The lubrication pump of the present invention
is a gerotor pump that includes a rotor drivingly coupled to the
input shaft and an impeller coupled to a first side gear.
Appealed claims 1, 2, 5, 6, 9 and 11 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over JP '712 in view of
Kwasniewski and Dick.1
Although appellants have set forth three groups of claims at
page 5 of the Brief, the examiner has properly held that all the
appealed claims stand or fall together with claim 11. As
explained by the examiner, the Argument section of appellants'
Brief fails to set forth an argument that is reasonably specific
to any particular claim on appeal. Also, we note that appellants
have not contested the examiner's holding.
We have thoroughly reviewed each of appellants' arguments
for patentability. However, we are in complete agreement with
the examiner that the claimed subject matter would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art within the meaning of
1 The examiner has withdrawn the rejection of claims 1 and 2
over Plantan (see page 3 of Answer, second paragraph).
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