Appeal No. 97-3197 Page 4
Application No. 08/418,021
examiner. As a consequence of our review, we make the
determinations which follow.
The Indefiniteness Issue
We do not sustain the rejection of claim 8 under 35 U.S.C.
§ 112, second paragraph.
Claims are considered to be definite, as required by the
second paragraph of 35 U.S.C. § 112, when they define the metes
and bounds of a claimed invention with a reasonable degree of
precision and particularity. See In re Venezia, 530 F.2d 956,
958, 189 USPQ 149, 151 (CCPA 1976).
On page 3 of the answer, the examiner determined that
[t]he recitation "wherein said head depression has
. . . an oval shaped side surface" renders the
claim indefinite. . . . The side surface does not
have an oval shaped, instead the side surface
forms an oval shape.
It is our opinion that the language at issue (i.e., oval
shaped side surface) would be understood as merely reciting that
the side surface of the head depression forms an oval shape.
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