Appeal No. 98-0194 Page 6
Application No. 08/132,940
The second paragraph of 35 U.S.C. § 112 requires claims
to set out and circumscribe a particular area with a
reasonable degree of precision and particularity. In re
Johnson, 558 F.2d 1008, 1015, 194 USPQ 187, 193 (CCPA 1977).
In making this determination, the definiteness of the language
employed in the claims must be analyzed, not in a vacuum, but
always in light of the teachings of the prior art and of the
particular application disclosure as it would be interpreted
by one possessing the ordinary level of skill in the pertinent
art. Id.
The specification (page 9, lines 8-12) sets forth that
the output from the electrosurgical generator 11 is terminated
by altering the drive circuit 33 by using a relay 34 to
disconnect and reconnect the power from the drive circuit 33.
Therefore, it is abundantly clear to us that drive circuit 33,
shown in Figures 1 and 2, constitutes the drive circuit being
altered by feedback signal 28 to turn off the supply of high
frequency electrosurgical energy to the active and return
leads as recited in claim 8. Accordingly, we will not sustain
the examiner's rejection.
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