Appeal No. 97-0677
Application No. 08/312,710
Crating & Packing, Inc., 731 F.2d 818, 826, 221 USPQ 568, 573-
74 (Fed. Cir. 1984).
Admittedly, the fact that some claim language, such as the
term of degree mentioned supra, may not be precise, does not
automatically render the claim indefinite and hence invalid
under the second paragraph of § 112. Seattle Box, supra.
Nevertheless, the need to cover what might constitute
insignificant variations of an invention does not amount to a
license to resort to the unbridled use of such terms without
appropriate constraints to guard against the potential use of
such terms as the proverbial nose of wax.3
In Seattle Box, the court set forth the following
requirements for terms of degree:
When a word of degree is used the district court must
determine whether the patent's specification provides
some standard for measuring that degree. The trial
court must decide, that is, whether one of ordinary
skill in the art would understand what is claimed
when the claim is read in light of the specification.
3 See White v. Dunbar, 119 US 47, 51-52 (1886) and
Townsend Engineering Co. v. HiTec Co. Ltd., 829 F.2d 1086, 4
USPQ2d 1136, 1139 (Fed. Cir. 1987).
7
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