Appeal No. 1997-3930
Application 08/394,596
by a silver halide fiber without cladding placed directly in a
petroleum sample.
As pointed out by the our reviewing court, we must first
determine the scope of the claim. "[T]he name of the game is
the claim." In re Hinkiker Co., 150 F.3d 1362, 1369, 47
USPQ2d 1523, 1529 (Fed. Cir. 1998). Our reviewing court has
stated in In re Donaldson Co. Inc., 16 F.2d 1189, 1193, 29
USPQ2d 1845, 1848 (Fed. Cir. 1994) that the "plain and
unambiguous meaning of paragraph six is that one construing
means-plus-function language in a claim must look to the
specification and interpret that language in light of the
corresponding structure material, or acts described therein,
and equivalents thereof, to the extent that the specification
provides such disclosure."
We note that Appellants' claim 1 recites "means to obtain
an evanescent spectrum of the hydrocarbon sample from the non-
cladded portion." Turning to Appellants' specification, we
find that on page 4, that Appellants disclosed that
spectrometer 18 obtains an evanescent spectrum of the
hydrocarbon sample from the non-cladded portion. Therefore,
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