Appeal 2007-1100
Application 10/384,642
Products, Inc., 451 F.3d 1366, 1376, 79 USPQ2d 1385, 1392 (Fed. Cir.
2006); see also In re Thrift, 298 F.3d 1357, 1364, 63 USPQ2d 2002, 2006
(Fed. Cir. 2002). Although Appellant proposes a dictionary definition of
“adjacent” that requires a common endpoint or border (Br. 12), other
dictionary definitions of the term are not so limiting. In fact, several
dictionaries expressly disavow the need for contact between “adjacent”
objects. One dictionary, for example, defines the term “adjacent” in
pertinent part as “situated near or close to something or each other,
especially without touching.”2 Significantly, this same dictionary
distinguishes the term “adjacent” from “adjoining” – a term that requires the
objects to be next to each other:
Two houses are said to be adjoining when they are
next to each other with a common wall. Adjoining
tables are next to each other, end to end, forming
one surface (they are, to use a more technical
word, contiguous). In other words, adjoining items
join. Adjacent houses, on the other hand, can have
a space between them or even be on opposite sides
of the road, as long as there is nothing significant
between them (such as another house) and they are
close enough for you to pass easily from one to the
other. Adjacent tables are next to each other but
not necessarily touching.3
2 See MSN Encarta Dictionary, at
http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/adjacent.html (last visited June 7, 2007)
(emphasis added).
3 Id. (emphasis added); see also Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, at
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=adjacent
(last visited June 7, 2007) (distinguishing “adjacent” which “may or may not
imply contact” from “adjoining” which definitely “implies having contact on
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