Appeal No. 97-4079
Application No. 08/310,592
"means" other than the material used to fabricate the "means,"
we conclude that the appellant intends to invoke the statutory
mandates of 35 U.S.C. § 112, sixth paragraph, for means-plus
function clauses. Accordingly, we are required by statute to
look to the appellant's specification and construe the "means"
language recited in claim 1 as limited to the corresponding
structure disclosed in the specification and equivalents
thereof. In re Donaldson Co., 16 F.3d 1189, 1194-95, 29
USPQ2d 1845, 1850 (Fed. Cir. 1994).
The particular means language of claim 1 at issue reads:
"at least two means for transmitting power and motion, a first
means and a second means, wherein said first means comprises a
polyketone polymer and communicates power and motion to said
second means, comprising a polyketone polymer." In the
"Detailed Description of the Invention" section of his
specification, the appellant identifies the "means" as
including "gears, belts, chain and sprocket assemblies, plane
and roller bearings, linear bearings, sleeve bearings,
pulleys, sliding plates and other like mechanisms" (page 7,
lines 1-3). In discussing the "most preferred means," i.e., a
system of pinion and spur gears, the appellant states that
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