Appeal No. 2004-0868
Application 09/742,980
connectors in a direction perpendicular to a mating direction. According to Hwang,
that movement is possible due to differences in diameter of the recess and the guiding
member. [Paper No. 14, page 3; answer, page 3.]
With respect to appellants’ argument in the brief, the examiner alleges with respect to the
“movement of the plug connector (20) regarding substrate (41), that movement does not
eliminate but complement the mutual movement of the plug and receptacle connectors when in
mated position” (answer, page 3).
In the reply brief, appellants contend that the examiner has not established that the
difference in diameter between receiving passages or recesses 14 and guiding rods or guide
elements 24 of Hwang necessarily and inherently “make possible the movement between the first
floatable connector and the corresponding connector,” arguing that
[w]hen read together, col. 1, lines 46-53, col. 2, lines 46-48 and 57-60 and Fig. 5 of
Hwang support the conclusion that floatable means 30 allows the entire plug connector
20 to move or “float” with respect to the substrate 40 to which the connector 20 is
attached, so that the plug 20 can be aligned with the receptacle connector 10 even if
there is an offset between the plug connector 20 and the attached substrate 40.
However, there is no reasonable interpretation of the disclosure of Hwang that would
support the Examiner’s conclusion that the difference in the diameters of the recess 14
and the guide 24 necessarily have to exit in view of the overall teachings of Hwang,
thereby satisfying the limitation of claim 1 that “in an inserted state the recess is set
apart from the guide element.” [Pages 4-5; emphasis in original deleted.]
Upon carefully considering the disclosure of Hwang as a whole, we agree with
appellants’ position. We find that Hwang discloses that
[t]he plug connector 20 includes a pair of guiding rods 24 on opposite ends of the
mating portion 22 received in the corresponding receiving passage 14 of the receptacle
connector 10. Each guiding rod 24 includes a tapered tip 24a extending over a top face
22a of the mating portion 22. By the cooperation of the tapered tip 24a and the slanted
edges 14a, mating between the receptacle and plug connectors 10, 20 along a front-
to-back direction can be smoothly performed. [Col. 2, lines 32-40.]
We further find that one of ordinary skill in this art would not have found in this disclosure or in
the protrusion of tips 24a of guiding rods or guide elements 24 through the base of receptacle
connector 10 when the guide rods are fully received in receiving passages or recesses 14 upon
mating as shown in Hwang FIG. 4 (see answer, page 3), any teaching that guiding rods or guide
elements 24 and receiving passages or recesses 14 are of such relative cross-sections that the
same can move with respect to each other as if they are “set apart” as we have interpreted this
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