Appeal No. 2004-0868
Application 09/742,980
connector] is guided into the recess, and in an inserted state, the recess is set apart
from the guide element.
The examiner takes the position that the claim language is satisfied if “the plug connector
is movable . . . with regard to the mating connector when both are mated” which “is possible due
to differences in diameter of the recess and the guiding member” (Paper No. 14, pages 2 and 3).
Appellants contend that if the guide member is “fully within” the recess, it is “not set apart”
therefrom (brief, page 6). In response, the examiner submits that
[t]he phrase “the recess is set apart from the guide element” should be interpreted in
[sic, the] sense that the respective elements are being kept separate (Heritage
Dictionary, 4th Ed; Cambridge International Dictionary, 2nd Ed).
Even being fully within the recess, the guide element can be set apart from the recess if
its cross-sectional size is smaller than that of the recess with the given tolerance. This
interpretation corresponds to the idea of the invention (Fig. 3 of the Application;
[brief], page 4, lines 4-8) where the guide (8) is separated from walls of the recess (9).
[Answer, page 3.]
With respect to this issue, we find that the specification would have disclosed to one of
ordinary skill in this art that “guide elements [of plug connectors] . . . are rectangular in cross-
section and . . . engage with recesses . . . in the mating connector” and that such “conventional
guide elements also have a centering function” which presents a problem when the “plug
connector . . . is only centered in the base of the mating connector” (page 1, line 8, to page 2, line
3). The solution to the problem proposed by appellants is to have “the recess . . . set apart from
the guide element” such that the “centering” and “guide” functions are separated, that is,
[a]fter ending the insertion process, while the plug connector is resting on the
connector base, centering elements retain the plug connector in the correct position in
the mating connector, and at the same time, the guide elements provide no further
function. [Id., page 2, lines 19-31.]
In one embodiment, the guide elements are “cam-like” and “glide in” the “guide-like recesses,”
wherein the “end position . . . [of] the recess . . . is dimensioned in such a way that the cam-like
. . . guide element is no longer guided by the recess” and “centering elements engage and retain
the connector in the correct position in the mating connector” (id., page 2, line 33, to page 3,
line 16).
This embodiment is illustrated in specification Figs. 1 - 3 which are described as follows:
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