Appeal No. 96-1943
Application No. 08/147,008
depict various conventional or well-known “off-the-shelf”
mechanical devices such as locks, brakes, drivers and endpoint
sensors. We must point out, however, that 37 CFR § 1.83(a)
expressly provides that:
conventional features disclosed in the description
and claims, where their detailed illustration is not
essential for a proper understanding of the
invention, should be illustrated in the drawing the
form of a graphical drawing symbol or a labeled
representation (e.g., a labeled rectangular box).
[Emphasis added.]
Moreover, as the court in In re Ghiron, 442 F.2d 985, 991, 169
USPQ 723, 727 (CCPA 1971) stated
if such a selection [of elements] would be “well
within the skill of persons of ordinary skill in the
art”, such functional-type block diagrams may be
acceptable and, in fact, preferable if they serve in
conjunction with the rest of the specification to
enable a person skilled in the art to make such a
selection and practice the claimed invention with
only a reasonable degree of routine experimentation.
[Emphasis added.]
Here, we do not believe that it can seriously be
contended that the artisan would not have the skill to (1)
make the required selection from conventional “off-the-shelf”
mechanical devices such as locks, brakes, drivers and endpoint
sensors and (2) provide for computer control of such elements,
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