Appeal No. 1998-1711 Page 10
Application No. 08/506,387
compartment 32E which is an expansion chamber for the engine cooling circuit, in the
embodiment shown in Figure 7, a compartment 32F which is a brake fluid reservoir from
which the hydraulic braking system of the vehicle is supplied and, in the embodiment of Figure
8, a small compartment 32F for containing the brake fluid, or acting as an accumulator for
pressurized fluid. We find these disclosures sufficient to convey to one of ordinary skill in the
art that, at the time the application was filed, the appellants were in possession of the invention
recited in claim 4 wherein the further reservoir is a coolant fluid expansion chamber, the
invention of claims 5 and 6 comprising a fluid reservoir adapted to contain hydraulic fluid and a
means for connecting that reservoir to a hydraulic braking circuit of a vehicle and the invention
of claim 7 wherein the further reservoir is a pressurized fluid accumulator.
Furthermore, original claims 5-7, which form part of the original disclosure, contain the claim
language at issue in the examiner's rejection and thus provide the necessary descriptive support
for the claimed subject matter to satisfy the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. § 112.6
Since, for the foregoing reasons, we have concluded that the appellants' specification
describes the subject matter of claims 5-7 in such a manner as to enable one of ordinary skill in
the art to make and use the invention and to convey to one of ordinary skill in the art that, at
the time the application was filed, the appellants had possession of the invention so as to
6See In re Gardner, 475 F.2d 1389, 1391, 177 USPQ 396, 397, supplemental opinion, 480 F.2d 879, 879-80,
178 USPQ 149 (CCPA 1973) and In re Smith, 481 F.2d 910, 914, 178 USPQ 620, 624 (CCPA 1973).
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