Appeal No. 2006-0461
Application 10/457,198
teachings in appellants’ disclosure. See generally, In re Rouffet, 149 F.3d 1350, 1358, 47
USPQ2d 1453, 1458 (Fed. Cir. 1998); Pro-Mold and Tool Co. v. Great Lakes Plastics, Inc., 75
F.3d 1568, 1573, 37 USPQ2d 1626, 1629-30 (Fed. Cir. 1996); In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443,
1445, 24 USPQ2d 1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir. 1992); In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 1074-76, 5 USPQ2d
1596, 1598-1600 (Fed. Cir. 1988); In re Dow Chem. Co., 837 F.2d 469, 473, 5 USPQ2d 1529,
1531 (Fed. Cir. 1988); In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 425, 208 USPQ 871, 881 (CCPA 1981).
In order to review the examiner’s application of prior art to claim 1, we must first
interpret the language thereof by giving the claim terms the broadest reasonable interpretation in
their ordinary usage in context as they would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art in
light of the written description in the specification, including the drawings, unless another
meaning is intended by appellants 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).
As illustrated by specification Figs. 1 and 2, the plain language of the claim specifies a method
comprising at least the steps of a) screening in unit 8 any encrusted ballast 6 to separate any
manner and amount of detritus 13 therefrom; b) washing in any manner in installation 11 the
screened ballast with any amount of water 12 while at the same time removing the separated
detritus 13 of step a) on a conveyor belt unit 14; c) clarifying the washing water 12 of step b) in
any manner in installation 17 to produce a clarified water portion and any manner of washing
water sludge 18; and d) disposing of the washing water sludge 18 of step c) by moving it to
conveyor belt 14 which is removing the separated detritus 13 as specified in step b) for common
removal of said separated detritus 13 and the washing water sludge 18 of step c) on the same
conveyor belt 14. We find that the term “sludge” as used by appellants in the written description
in the specification (e.g., page 2, first full paragraph) comports with the common dictionary
meaning of the term in context, “[s]emisolid material . . . [m]ud, mire, or ooze . . . .”1
1 See generally, The American Heritage Dictionary Of The English Language 1639 (4th ed.,
Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company. 2000); see also reply brief, page 2.
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