Appeal No. 2001-0302
Application No. 08/635,614
ordinary level of skill in the pertinent art. Id. Applying
these principles here, it is our view that the ordinarily skilled
artisan would have no trouble understanding the meaning of the
terms in question. In this regard, while appellants’
specification does not expressly define the terms noted by the
examiner, a commonly accepted definition of the adjective
“diametric” appearing in each of these terms is “of, relating to,
or along a diameter.”3 Consistent with this definition, and in
keeping with the underlying disclosure, the ordinarily skilled
artisan would understand, for example, the phrase “diametric
deformation along the diametric direction” (claim 1, line 10) as
meaning deformation in a direction along the diameter of the
steering shaft.
In light of the above, we shall not sustain the standing
rejection of claims 1, 6 and 8 under 35 U.S.C. § 112, second
paragraph.
The Rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 112, first paragraph
Based on the language used by the examiner in the answer in
explaining the rejection under the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C.
3Webster’s II New Riverside University Dictionary, copyright ©
1984 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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