Appeal No. 95-4250 Page 6
Application No. 08/086,395
interpreted by one of ordinary skill in the art in light of
appellant's specification and the prior art, sets out and
circumscribes a particular area with a reasonable degree of
precision and particularity. See In re Moore, 439 F.2d 1232,
1235, 169 USPQ 236, 238 (CCPA 1971).
The examiner urges that the term “matching” in appellant's
claims is indefinite (answer, page 4) in that no particular
process steps for adjusting the refractive indices of the water
and oil phases are indicated thereby. However, as indicated
above, the claims are not read in a vacuum.
Appellant describes matching of the refractive indices as
involving a comparison of the refractive index of the water
phase and the refractive index of the oil phase and adjustment
of the water phase composition if the respective indices differ
in that one is higher or lower than the other (specification
page 2, line 20 through page 3, line 11 and page 16, example
I). In other words, the refractive indices are matched by
adjusting the water phase composition as necessary to provide
an oil phase and a water phase with equal refractive indices.
In light of appellant's specification wherein the process
of matching the refractive indices is described, we agree with
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