Appeal No. 2002-0145
Application No. 09/090,990
and circumscribe a particular area with a reasonable degree of
precision and particularity. It is here where the definiteness
of the language employed must be analyzed–not in a vacuum, but
always in light of the teachings of the prior art and of the
particular application disclosure as it would be interpreted by
one possessing the ordinary skill in the pertinent art. In re
Moore, 439 F.2d 1232, 1235, 169 USPQ 236, 238 (CCPA 1971).
It is the examiner’s position that since the claims specify
the use of HTML as a format for e-mail and electronic documents
and HTML is “a generic term which does not specifically define
the version being claimed” (answer, page 3), and the version may
change from time to time, the claim scope would change over time
and the metes and bounds of the claims would not be
ascertainable. We disagree.
As appellant states (principal brief, page 17), systems
“that are HTML-capable will always be HTML-capable.” At the time
of this invention, artisans understood what the term HTML meant,
and still means, and would interpret the claimed invention as
referring to the HTML level available at the time the invention
was made. Accordingly, the scope of the terms can easily be
ascertained, with a reasonable degree of certainty. That is, the
meaning of HTML is the HTML specification at the time of the
3
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007