Appeal Number: 2006-2476
Application Number: 10/269,089
discharged by the brake disc since determination of said last-determined disc
temperature; and
determining current caliper temperature (Tcaliper, current) of the brake caliper of the
wheel-braking device as a function of the current disc temperature (Tdisc, current) of the
brake disc.
No prior art references of record were relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the
appealed claims.
Claims 1 through 14 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112, first paragraph, as
being based on a disclosure which is not enabling.
Reference is made to the Examiner's Answer (mailed January 26, 2006) for the
examiner's complete reasoning in support of the rejection, and to appellants’ Brief (filed
November 3, 2005) and Reply Brief (filed March 27, 2006) for appellants’ arguments
thereagainst.
OPINION
We have carefully considered the claims, the applied prior art references, and the
respective positions articulated by appellants and the examiner. As a consequence of our
review, we will reverse the enablement rejection of claims 1 through 14.
The only issue is this appeal is whether or not the specification enables the skilled
artisan to obtain the “last-determined disc temperature.” See Answer, page 3. Appellants
explain (Brief, pages 5 and 6) that “a person skilled in the art would easily understand
that the phrase ‘last-determined disk temperature’ refers simply to the temperature
determined in the immediately preceding iteration of the process,” or, rather, “the
beginning value for any particular calculation is nothing more than the ending value for
the preceding calculation.” Appellants recognize that (Brief, page 6) “[t]his leaves only
the question of how the initial value for commencing the iterative process according to
the invention is obtained, when the vehicle is started.” Appellants (Reply Brief, page 1)
direct our attention to Figure 3 and paragraphs [0029] through [0040] of the specification.
Figure 3 and the corresponding disclosure indicate that when the vehicle is first
started, the switch-on temperature of the hydraulic assembly is measured and compared
with the stored, measured switch-off temperature of the hydraulic assembly. If the
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