Appeal No. 94-3726 Application 07/978,531 the following new rejections: (1) claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112, fourth paragraph, since claim 10 does not specify a further limitations of the subject matter claimed in the claim it depends upon; (2) claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(e) as anticipated by O'Connor or Anderson; (3) claims 1 through 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as unpatentable over O'Connor or Anderson; and (4) claims 1 through 11 are rejected under the judicially created doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting over claims 1, 7 through 12 and 14 of O'Connor or claims 1 through 5 of Anderson. OPINION A. The Claimed Subject Matter As our initial inquiry into a review of the examiner's rejection under § 103, we must analyze the claimed language to determine the scope and meaning of each contested limitation. See Gechter v. Daivdson, 116 F.3d 1454, 1457, 43 USPQ2d 1030, 1032 (Fed. Cir. 1997). During patent examination, the claims must be interpreted as broadly as their terms reasonably allow. See In re Zletz, 893 F.2d 319, 321, 13 USPQ2d 1320, 1322 (Fed. Cir. 1989). 4Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007