Appeal No. 95-3640
Application 08/147,742
discloses that the composition recited in claim 1 eradicates
rhinoviruses on the hands of human subjects (page 5, lines 28-
31), and has been shown experimentally to destroy rhinoviruses
for up to two hours after the composition is applied to the
hands (page 8, line 28 - page 9, line 1). According to the
specification (page 9, lines 11-16), “[t]his application [of a
hand lotion containing the composition recited in appellants’
claim 1] will kill rhinovirus particles present on the hands
of infected individuals, and will kill rhinovirus particles
that are transmitted to non-infected individuals via hand-to-
hand transmission that are protected by the hand lotion
treatment.”
In light of appellants’ specification, including the
disclosures referred to above, one of ordinary skill in the
art, in our opinion, would have interpreted the language
“preventing the spread of rhinovirus induced colds” in the
preamble of claim 1 as meaning preventing the spread of colds
which would result from the transfer of rhinoviruses to or
from hands which have not had the composition recited in
appellants’ claim 1 applied to them. Thus, in our view, such
a person would not have considered this phrase to encompass
-5-5
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007