Appeal 2007-2742
Application 09/764,618
1 sufficient funds in the account to settle the transaction (Hambrecht, col.
2 8, ll. 34-51).
3 25. Brokers have the capacity to lend funds on margin.
4 26. Hambrecht’s claim 36 describes permitting extension of credit to a
5 qualified purchaser (Hambrecht, col. 37, ll. 10-11).
6 PRINCIPLES OF LAW
7 Claim Construction
8 During examination of a patent application, pending claims are given
9 their broadest reasonable construction consistent with the specification. In
10 re Prater, 415 F.2d 1393, 1404-05, 162 USPQ 541, 550-51 (CCPA 1969);
11 In re Am. Acad. of Sci. Tech Ctr., 367 F.3d 1359, 1369, 70 USPQ2d 1827,
12 1834 (Fed. Cir. 2004).
13 Although a patent applicant is entitled to be his or her own lexicographer of
14 patent claim terms, in ex parte prosecution it must be within limits. In re Corr,
15 347 F.2d 578, 580, 146 USPQ 69, 70 (CCPA 1965). The applicant must do so by
16 placing such definitions in the Specification with sufficient clarity to provide a
17 person of ordinary skill in the art with clear and precise notice of the meaning that
18 is to be construed. See also In re Paulsen, 30 F.3d 1475, 1480, 31 USPQ2d 1671,
19 1674 (Fed. Cir. 1994) (although an inventor is free to define the specific terms
20 used to describe the invention, this must be done with reasonable clarity,
21 deliberateness, and precision; where an inventor chooses to give terms uncommon
22 meanings, the inventor must set out any uncommon definition in some manner
23 within the patent disclosure so as to give one of ordinary skill in the art notice of
24 the change).
10
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