Appeal No. 2000-1410
Application No. 09/021,667
1. Gear recognition switch apparatus for use in vehicular
transmissions comprising
a housing having a bottom wall formed with an elongated
channel therein along a longitudinal direction, the bottom wall
having a platform surface on either side of the channel and
having sidewalls extending upwardly from the bottom wall to form
an actuator seat,
an actuator received on the actuator seat, the actuator
having a base wall and manual valve coupling portion extending
downwardly through the channel, the actuator formed with flexible
portions which form an interference fit in the actuator seat with
the actuator slidable along the platform surfaces in the
longitudinal direction between first and second extremities of
said elongated channel, said base wall of the actuator having
opposed first and second ends in the longitudinal direction and
opposed first and second sides in a lateral direction generally
perpendicular to the longitudinal direction in which a flexible
portion is formed by a longitudinally extending isolation slot
formed in the base wall adjacent the first side thereof forming a
flexible beam, said flexible beam having a protrusion thereon
extending laterally outwardly,
a movable contact assembly disposed on top of the base wall,
the movable contact assembly having at least one movable contact
arm biased away from the base of the wall of the actuator, and
a stationary contact board received over the movable contact
assembly and attached to the housing, the stationary contact
board having at least one stationary contact path with an
electrically conductive segment selectively positioned in a
portion of the contact path, the at least one movable contact arm
biased into engagement with at least one stationary contact path.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the
examiner in rejecting the appealed claims are:
Suwa 4,441,000 Apr. 03, 1984
Tomotoshi 5,860,515 Jan. 19, 1999
(filed May 28, 1997)
Claims 1, 3, 4, and 8 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103
as being unpatentable over Tomotoshi in view of Suwa.
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