Appeal No. 2005-0642
Application No. 09/568,278
Although the language reciting a catch beam has been removed
from the claims in the reissue application, new language has been
added which recites a hook element. Each of the independent claims
26, 37, 45, and 46, recites in part: “a hook . . . to prevent said latch
from moving out of the latched position.”
As is evident from the previous quotations, the broadening and
narrowing of the claims of the present reissue application relate to the
same subject matter. The claim element “catch beam” in the parent
application relates to a portion of the latch which secures the latch in a
latched position. The claim element “hook” in the reissue application
similarly relates to a portion of the latch which prevents the latch from
moving out of the latched position, i.e., securing the latch in the
latched position. Thus, unlike the broadening and narrowing of the
claims in the Pannu reissue application, the claims in the present
reissue are narrowed in the same subject matter as their broadening.
Moreover, the claims in the reissue application are clearly not as
broad as the claims of the parent without the language reciting the
catch beams.
Thus, in accordance with the holding in Pannu, the Appellants
have avoided the rule against recapture, and so claims 26-46 of the
reissue application were improperly rejected.
We disagree.
As the Examiner accurately points out in the Supplemental Examiner’s
Answer at pages 9-10:
While it is true that the catch beam elements (94) and the hook
element (106) are both located on different portions of the latch means
(80) and both perform a securing function, the specification clearly
teaches that the two securing means operate independently of each
other. This is shown to be true by the fact that neither securing means
needs the presence of the other to perform its securing function. Note,
that the specification on lines 18-20 of column 6 states that “hook 106
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