Appeal No. 96-2741
Application 08/227,093
2. Claim Interpretation of "Deflectable"
Appellants request that we reconsider the rejections of
claim 15 over Kotitalo and over Watanabe and Takagi based on
an alleged error in our interpretation of "deflectable."
Appellants argue that the dictionary definition of
"deflectable" means "capable of being deflected" and
"deflected" means "turned aside, or from a direct line or
course." Appellants argue that our interpretation of
"deflectable" as "movable" was a clear error (RR3).
As we stated in our decision (D11-12):
We interpret the term "deflectable" in claim 15 broadly
to mean "movable" because appellants disclose a tongue 12
that bends and a tongue 22 that translates and both are
claimed to be "deflectable"; compare claims 11 and 18.
Appellants do not address the context in which we made the
statement, nor do appellants try to explain how the definition
of "turned aside, or from a direct line or course" requires a
certain structure that is not shown in the references. It is
possible to define "deflectable" to mean capable of being
displaced due to bending, like the deflection (i.e., turning
aside) of a beam under a load. Appellants' tongues 12 in
figure 2 bend. We noted, however, that appellants also used
the term "deflectable" to apply to the "tongue" in claim 18
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