Appeal No. 1997-1173
Application No. 08/428,775
consistent with the specification. In re Prater, 415 F.2d
1393, 1404, 162 USPQ 541, 550 (CCPA 1969); however, “[c]laim
language must be read in light of the specification as it
would be interpreted by one of ordinary skill in the art.” In
re Johnson, 558 F.2d 1008, 1016, 194 USPQ 187, 194 (CCPA
1977). According to Webster's Third New International
Dictionary (Unabridged, 1971), the term "physical" is defined
inter alia as “of or relating to natural or material things as
opposed to things mental, moral, spiritual, or imaginary.”
When claim 1 is given a broadest reasonable interpretation
consistent with appellants’ specification, we interpret the
claimed limitation “wherein said physical and electrical
connections are formed by said soldering metal” to comprise
the soldering metal (i.e., physical connections) connecting
the integrated circuit element input/output pads to the
substrate input/output pads (as illustrated by numeral
reference 38 in appellants’ Figures 2 and 4), rather than the
soldering metal connecting the composite bumps to the
input/output pads (as illustrated by numeral reference 38 in
appellants’ Figures 6 and 8).
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