Appeal No. 97-0677
Application No. 08/312,710
In Shatterproof Glass Corp. v. Libbey-Owens Ford Co., 758
F.2d 613, 624, 225 USPQ 634, 641 (Fed. Cir. 1985), the court
added:
If the claims, read in light of the specifications
[sic], reasonably apprise those skilled in the art
both of the utilization and scope of the invention,
and if the language is as precise as the subject
matter permits, the courts can demand no more.
Indeed, the fundamental purpose of a patent claim is to
define the scope of protection and hence what the claim4
precludes others from doing. All things considered, because a
patentee has the right to exclude others from making, using and
selling the invention covered by a United States letters
patent, the public must be apprised of what the patent covers,
so that those who approach the area circumscribed by the claims
of a patent may more readily and accurately determine the
boundaries of protection in evaluating the possibility of
infringement and dominance. See In re Hammack, 427 F.2d 1378,
1382, 166 USPQ 204, 208 (CCPA 1970).
4 See In re Vamco Machine & Tool, Inc., 752 F.2d 1564,
224 USPQ 617 (Fed. Cir. 1985).
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