Appeal No. 2004-1378 Application No. 09/761,724 Appellants' claimed invention is directed to an inter-axle differential assembly for a vehicular power transmission unit. The assembly includes a lubrication pump which provides flow of lubricant only during the differential action between the input and output shafts. The lubrication pump of the present invention is a gerotor pump that includes a rotor drivingly coupled to the input shaft and an impeller coupled to a first side gear. Appealed claims 1, 2, 5, 6, 9 and 11 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over JP '712 in view of Kwasniewski and Dick.1 Although appellants have set forth three groups of claims at page 5 of the Brief, the examiner has properly held that all the appealed claims stand or fall together with claim 11. As explained by the examiner, the Argument section of appellants' Brief fails to set forth an argument that is reasonably specific to any particular claim on appeal. Also, we note that appellants have not contested the examiner's holding. We have thoroughly reviewed each of appellants' arguments for patentability. However, we are in complete agreement with the examiner that the claimed subject matter would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art within the meaning of 1 The examiner has withdrawn the rejection of claims 1 and 2 over Plantan (see page 3 of Answer, second paragraph). -3-Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007