Appeal 2007-1827
Application 10/001,324
The Appellant’s independent claim 1 requires that “the transmission control
unit generates information for causing the first transmission and the second
transmission in combination to move a total of M times to move to a different
destination speed stage that has a gear ratio in close proximity to a gear ratio of the
requested destination speed stage, where M is an integer less than N”. Similar
claim requirements appear in the other independent claims (20 and 22). Each of
the independent claims requires that the transmission control unit generates
information “without regard to whether or not the first transmission and the second
transmission would be temporarily set in a speed stage outside a range between the
origin speed stage and the requested destination speed stage when moving from the
origin speed stage to the requested destination speed stage.”
For a disclosure of the Appellant’s recited generation of information by the
transmission control unit the Examiner relies upon Browning (Answer 4-5).
Browning shifts front and rear bicycle gear assemblies one at a time (col. 5, col.
37-44). To improve cyclist comfort Browning avoids what Browning calls an
“illegal gear shift”, i.e., “a shift from a first gear to a second gear such that the
bicycle must transition through a third gear that is not between the first and second
gears to get from the first to the second gear” (col. 5, ll. 12-34). The shift from
gear 3 to gear 2 in Browning’s table 1 (col. 5, ll. 17-30) is illegal because 1) if the
front gear assembly is shifted down one gear (from 30 to 38) the bicycle will be in
gear ratio 38/23 which is 5th gear, outside the range of gears 2 and 3, and 2) if the
rear gear assembly is shifted down one gear (from 23 to 32) the bicycle will be in
gear ratio 30/32, which is 1st gear, also outside the range of gears 2 and 3.
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Last modified: September 9, 2013