Appeal No. 2006-1364
Application No. 10/218,952
casing portion (answer, pages 7-8).
During patent prosecution, claims are to be given their
broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the
specification, as the claim language would have been read by one
of ordinary skill in the art in view of the specification. See
In re Zletz, 893 F.2d 319, 321, 13 USPQ2d 1320, 1322 (Fed. Cir.
1989); In re Sneed, 710 F.2d 1544, 1548, 218 USPQ 385, 388 (Fed.
Cir. 1983). The appellants’ specification discloses that the
creeper module housing is bolted to the transmission module
housing so that creeper modules can be added to a common
transmission module (specification, page 4, ¶ 16). Separating
the housing portions as argued by the examiner would require
disassembling the transmission/friction clutch mechanism. The
examiner has not explained, and it is not apparent, how the
appellants’ claim term “detachably mountable”, given its broadest
reasonable interpretation in view of the specification,
encompasses such disassembling.
Moreover, the examiner has not established that even if
Mann’s driving mechanism could be taken apart at the relied-upon
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