Appeal No. 96-4022
Application 08/197,011
1973). With these principles in mind, we now consider the
terminology employed in the claims on appeal.
Each of the independent claims on appeal specifies a “flank
portion” that is “immediately adjacent” a gage portion of the
bit. The flank portion or region is referenced in line 28 of
page 8 of the specification by the numeral 40; however, the axial
extent of this flank portion or region is totally unclear when
considering the specification, drawings and claims as a whole.
More specifically, the upper extent of the flank portion or
region 40 is depicted in Figs. 2-6 as ending well short of the
gage portion 14 and, thus, it does not appear that the flank
portion or region 40 can even be considered to be “adjacent,”2
much less “immediately adjacent,” to the gage portion 14 as
claimed. The lower extent of the flank portion or region 40 is
also unclear inasmuch as Figs. 2-6 of the drawings clearly depict
this flank portion or region as including flank cutter 30 whereas
(1) page 8, line 22, of the specification refers to this flank
portion or region as being “cutter devoid” and (2) independent
claims 9 and 16 set forth that “none” of the first plurality of
cutters are located thereon. We particularly note that, other
2 The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition,
1982, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA, defines “adjacent” as
-- 1. Close to; lying near. 2. Next to; adjoining --.
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