Appeal No. 1999-1834 Page 5
Application No. 08/876,030
to make Soltysiak's label from a paper stock that is highly
calendered.
Since all the limitations of claims 17 to 34 are not
taught or suggested by the applied prior art for the reasons
set forth above, the decision of the examiner to reject claims
17 to 34 is reversed.
REMAND
The term "highly" is a term of degree. When a word of
degree is used, such as the term "highly" in claim 17, it is
necessary to determine whether the specification provides some
standard for measuring that degree. See Seattle Box Company,
Inc. v. Industrial Crating & Packing, Inc., 731 F.2d 818, 826,
221 USPQ 568, 573-74 (Fed. Cir. 1984).
Admittedly, the fact that some claim language, such as
the term of degree mentioned supra, may not be precise, does
not automatically render the claim indefinite under the second
paragraph of § 112. Seattle Box, supra. Nevertheless, the
need to cover what might constitute insignificant variations
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007