Appeal No. 1999-0645 Page 4
Application No. 08/799,056
1010 (Fed. Cir. 1991). Claim 1 recites, inter alia, a
retention spring "surrounding the shaft" and claim 11 recites,
inter alia, "a sheet metal spring having a body for
surrounding and frictionally gripping the shaft." The
examiner's position (answer, page 3) is that the Keeling
retention clip (35) surrounds "(at least partially)" the
shaft. It appears to us that this position is based on a
misinterpretation of the term "surrounding."
The term "surround" is ordinarily and customarily
understood to mean "to cause to be encircled on all or nearly
all sides" or "to be present on all or nearly all sides." 3
The body (26) of the appellants' disclosed retention spring
(24), as best seen in Figure 4, forms a D-shaped enclosure
which fully encircles or encloses the shaft (14) inserted
therein and, thus, is capable of "surrounding" the shaft in
the ordinary and customary usage of "surrounding." As we see
it, complete, or nearly complete, enclosure is required to
satisfy the "surrounding" limitation of claims 1 and 11.
3Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition (Simon &
Schuster, Inc. 1988).
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