context of the entire claim, recites limitations of the claim, or, if
the claim preamble is “necessary to give life, meaning, and
vitality” to the claim, then the claim preamble should be
construed as if in the balance of the claim.
Pitney Bowes, Inc. v. Hewlett-Packard Co., 182 F.3d 1298, 1305, 51 USPQ2d 1161, 1165
(Fed Cir. 1999).
The preamble of appellant’s claim 1 recites a “device for moving books” and the
balance of the claim recites, inter alia, “a transport device vertically transporting the
books.” The active limitation “vertically transporting the books” does not make sense
without a positive recitation of books. Thus, in this case, the preamble must be read as
positively reciting books, as well as the device for moving them, and, because this
recitation is necessary to give life, meaning and vitality to the limitation “a transport
device vertically transporting the books,” must further be construed as if in the balance of
the claim. In other words, claim 1, when read as a whole, includes a positive recitation of
books vertically transported on the transport device.
Having determined that claim 1 positively recites books vertically transported on
the transport device, we now turn to the second issue. The second issue in this appeal is
whether Gram teaches or suggests books vertically transported on a transport device.
Gram, while arguably capable of vertically transporting books, albeit perhaps
preferably not books that have been freshly bound using adhesive, on carriers 3, does not
in fact disclose books being transported on the carriers. Gram indicates that the disclosed
apparatus is “for processing articles, e.g. for cooling or freezing such articles or goods”
(col. 1, ll. 8-10) and refers to US. Pat. No. 3,993,189 (issued to Khoylian et al. on
November 23, 1976) for an example of an apparatus of this kind (col. 1, ll. 20-21). The
Khoylian patent describes the processing conveyor disclosed therein as related to
“automatic processing, such as food processing, and particularly to a novel conveying
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013