Appeal No. 96-1608
Application 08/220,462
The following rejections are entered pursuant to 37 CFR
§ 1.196(b).
Claims 9 and 10, and claims 3, 7, 12 and 14 through 16
which depend therefrom, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112,
second paragraph, as failing to particularly point out and
distinctly claim the subject matter the appellant regards as
the invention.
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 determining whether this standard is met, 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. In the present case, it is not
clear what is meant by the recitations in the first clauses of
independent claims 9 and 10 that all of the members are of a
substantially cylindrical shape. The underlying disclosure
lacks any apparent mention or showing of such shape. Thus,
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