Appeal No. 2006-0449
Application 10/232,644
skill in the art in light of the written description in the specification unless another meaning is
intended by appellant as established in the written description of the specification, and without
reading into the claims any limitation or particular embodiment disclosed in the specification.
See, e.g., In re Am. Acad. of Sci. Tech. Ctr., 367 F.3d 1359, 1364, 70 USPQ2d 1827, 1830 (Fed.
Cir. 2004); In re Morris, 127 F.3d 1048, 1054-55, 44 USPQ2d 1023, 1027 (Fed. Cir. 1997); In re
Zletz, 893 F.2d 319, 321-22, 13 USPQ2d 1320, 1322 (Fed. Cir. 1989). The plain language of
independent claim 1 specifies a method comprising at least the steps of combining any “meat”
and any “marinade” in a bag and then vacuum sealing the “bag without allowing any substantial
time for marination,” at an unspecified later time, immersing the vacuum sealed bad in a brine
solution containing between 0.05% and 1.0% by weight of any cruciferous oil, and freezing said
meat in the vacuum sealed bag in the brine solution at a temperature between –22 and -43.6°F,
that is, –30.0 to –42.0°C, such that “said meat can be properly marinated in the same amount of
time as fresh meat placed in said marinade.” Thus, in the context of the language of this claim,
the “time for marination” is the “same amount of time” that any “fresh” “said meat” “placed in”
any “said marinade” “can be properly marinated” in the estimation of any chef or consumer, and
therefore, the bag with the combined meat and marinade must be vacuum sealed “without
allowing any substantial time for” “properly” marinating the meat with the marinade.
The plain language of independent claim 13 specifies a method comprising at least the
method steps specified in appealed claim 1, but does not include the “properly marinated in the
same amount of time” clause, and adds the additional steps of “thawing said meat and said
marinade” and then “marinating said meat in said marinade prior to cooking.” Thus, claim 13
does not limit the “time for marination” in any respect.
Each of independent claims 1 and 13 simply requires combining any “meat” and any
“marinade” in a bag and then vacuum sealing the “bag without allowing any substantial time for
marination,” followed at any later time by the step of immersing the vacuum sealed bad in a
specified brine solution, and thus, does not limit marination time of the meat subsequent to
sealing the bag and prior to freezing the bag.
Claims 3 and 15 further limit claims 1 and 13, on which they respectively depend, by
requiring that the “meat is frozen without allowing any substantial time for marination after
vacuum sealing.” The subject phrase taken with the requirement to vacuum seal the “bag
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