Appeal No. 2004-1966
Application No. 09/683,703
system or steering input shaft, contends that “it would clearly
be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that [Hanger’s]
input shaft would not be mechanically linked to the steered road
wheels during assembly of the vehicle and/or during repair or
salvage of the vehicle” (answer, page 3).
Although this highly imaginative and entertaining analysis
cries out for a more colorful response, suffice to say that it
falls well short of justifying the examiner’s conclusion of
obviousness. Hanger’s female receptacle, worm gear 11, does not
include anything which would be viewed by one of ordinary skill
in the art as a stop position for limiting rotational
travel of the steering input shaft. The examiner’s finding to
the contrary rests on a manifestly unreasonable parsing and
interpretation of the claim language in question. The further
proposition that the unassembled component parts of Hanger’s
steering mechanism would embody a steer-by-wire system having a
steering input shaft that is not mechanically linked to the
steered wheels is similarly ill founded. Such unassembled parts
do not comprise a steering system of any sort, let alone a steer-
by-wire system having a steering input shaft that is not
mechanically linked to the steered wheels.
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