Appeal No. 95-5103 Page 11
Application No. 08/074,303
"means-plus-function" language in a claim, one must set forth
in the specification an adequate disclosure showing what is
meant by that language. If an applicant fails to set forth an
adequate disclosure, the applicant has in effect failed to
particularly point out and distinctly claim the invention as
required by the second paragraph of section 112. Donaldson,
16 F.3d at 1195, 29 USPQ2d at 1850. See also In re Dossel,
115 F.3d 942, 946-47, 42 USPQ2d 1881, 1884-85 (Fed. Cir.
1997).
We agree with the appellant that there is no teaching in
Farkas that a normally open push-button start switch 35 is
provided in both section 15 and section 16. Nevertheless,
clearly Farkas teaches that consoles 22 and 23 are each
provided with a machine start switch (not shown) for switching
the individual section from the safe condition to the run
condition and a machine stop switch (not shown) for switching
the individual section from the run condition to the safe
condition. In our view, it would have been obvious to make5
5See column 4, lines 26-42, of Farkas.
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