Appeal No. 1998-0982 Page 6
Application No. 08/399,715
the control shaft flange is engageable with the driving wheel. 4
Furthermore, appellant’s application as filed appears to lack
descriptive support for the recitation in claim 1 that
diaphragm spring has an operating range “to move at least one
of the axial stops into frictional engagement with the driving
wheel, . . .”
With regard to the second paragraph of § 112, the
examiner’s attention is directed to the recitation in claim 1
that the shape of spring’s characteristic curve is “relatively
negative and substantially constant along a maximal movement
path of the predetermined operating range” (emphasis added).
It is unclear what is meant by the recitation that the movement
path (which we understand to be the spring’s deflection path)
is “maximal.” Furthermore, the word “substantially” is a term
of degree. Appellant’s specification, however, appears to lack
any guidelines or standards for measuring that degree as
required in Seattle Box Co. v. Industrial Crating & Packing
Inc., 731 F.2d 818, 826, 221 USPQ 568, 574 (Fed. Cir. 1984).
4According to its applicable dictionary definition
(see Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (G. &
C. Merriam Company, 1971)), the word “engage” means to
“come into contact with.”
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