Appeal No. 96-0528
Application No. 08/151,463
levers 41 and 41 locking the elevator chassis to the main1 2
chassis at the position of the disc being played. The
elevator chassis and the main chassis remain locked until the
disc has been played and reinserted into the disc housing
unit. Thus, it is clear that the claimed “locking mechanism”
must, somehow, fasten the elevator chassis and the main
chassis together.
We do not find such a “locking mechanism” in Miyoshi. In
Miyoshi, the lift drive motor 125, via screws 121, timing belt
123, female screw segments 122, and appropriate gearing,
causes vertical movement of the elevator chassis relative to
the main chassis. Once the elevator chassis reaches the
intended position in order to extract a disc, one might
reasonably conclude, broadly, as the examiner did, that the
elevator chassis is “locked” relative to the main chassis
because the two are set in position vis à vis one another and
the elevator chassis does not move until the lift drive motor
causes the motion. However, it is our view that such an
interpretation is unfairly broad in view of the “locking
mechanism” disclosed and claimed by appellant. The locking
mechanism of the instant claimed invention is clearly locked
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