Appeal No. 2001-1888
Application No. 08/741,449
“Anticipation is established only when a single prior art reference discloses,
expressly or under principles of inherency, each and every element of a claimed
invention.” RCA Corp. v. Applied Digital Data Sys., Inc., 730 F.2d 1440, 1444, 221
USPQ 385, 388 (Fed. Cir. 1984). The first inquiry must be into exactly what the claims
define. In re Wilder, 429 F.2d 447, 450, 166 USPQ 545, 548 (CCPA 1970). The terms
used in the claims bear a “heavy presumption” that they mean what they say and have
the ordinary meaning that would be attributed to those words by persons skilled in the
relevant art. Texas Digital Sys., Inc. v. Telegenix, Inc., 308 F.3d 1193, 1202, 64
USPQ2d 1812, 1817 (Fed. Cir. 2002).
We have reviewed the U.S. patents referenced by appellants and we agree that
“spring probe” and “spring probe receptacle” are apparent terms of art, and their
recognized meanings cannot be disregarded. As shown in the drawings of U.S. patent
5,744,977 (“Cuautla”) and U.S. patent 5,801,544 (“Swart”), a “spring probe” requires at
least a spring and a plunger of some form for making electrical contact. Conventional
spring-loaded contact probes generally include an outer receptacle, a movable plunger,
a barrel containing the plunger, and a spring for biasing travel of the plunger in the
barrel. Conventionally, the barrel is mounted within the receptacle with the plunger
extending outwardly from the receptacle. See Swartz, col. 1, ll. 13-29. Spring probe
components comprised of a barrel, plunger, and spring are commonly inserted into an
outer receptacle for retaining the probe in a fixture. See id. at col. 1, l. 54 - col. 2, l. 5.
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