Appeal No. 2005-1264 Page 6
Application No. 09/682,594
32 (CCPA 1967) (A single sentence in a specification of a later-filed application
identifying that application as a continuation-in-part of an earlier application would not
suggest to the reader that the disclosure of the earlier application should be considered
part of the later-filed application so as to constitute a tacit description of the subject
matter in the earlier application).
With respect to claim 35, the disclosed structure in the appellants’ original
disclosure corresponding to the recited first and second guide rails must be guide
elements 38, one of which is identified in Figures 1 and 3. The only structures disclosed
in the appellants’ original application as moveably affixed in any fashion to the guide
elements 38 are track elements 36, “which travel along guide elements 38"
(specification, page 5). It thus follows that the “first connecting member” and “second
connecting member” recited in claim 35 must correspond to track elements 36 which,
together with the plurality of slat elements 34 mounted between track elements 36,
make up the left or right storage surface 30 or 32. Accordingly, it would have been
apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from the appellants’ original disclosure that
the track elements (recited as “track members” in claim 35), themselves part of the
storage surface, are not hingedly connected to the storage surface. Moreover, there is
absolutely no indication in the appellants’ original disclosure either that the track
elements 36 would be hingedly connected to the slat elements 34 or that there is any
additional structure moveably affixed to the guide elements 38 and hingedly connected
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