Appeal No. 2001-1848
Application 08/932,988
elsewhere, are provided in the leader 1, not in the fly-fishing
line 5 itself. The leader of the fishing assembly is a
component that is separate and distinct from the fly line
itself as evidenced by the description in appellant’s
specification (see, for example page 6, lines 20-27), by the
description in the Dawson patent that the leader 1 is attached
at one end to the fly-fishing line 5 (see page 1, lines 43-45
of the Dawson specification), by the description of the various
fishing components in pages 1-15 of the Cortland catalog which
accompanied appellant’s main brief and by the description in
the patents cited on page 2 of appellant’s reply brief.
Moreover, claim 1 defines the fly-fishing line as being
separate from the leader by explicitly stating that the fly
line is adapted to be attached at its second end to the leader
consistent with the description in the specification.
The examiner agrees that “the terms ‘fly fishing line’ and
‘leader’ may have particular meaning in the fishing art”
(answer, page 6). He nevertheless contends that when “the
language of claim 1 has been interpreted as broadly as
reasonably possible . . . there is nothing in claim 1 which
differentiates it from Dawson” (answer, page 6). This
statement is not entirely consistent with the applicable case
law governing the interpretation of claim language.
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