Ex parte INSTANCE - Page 4




          Appeal No. 97-1872                                                          
          Application 08/371,620                                                      


          interpretation to be given to the language “release material”               
          found in each of the independent claims on appeal.  The                     
          examiner is of the view that the term may be broadly                        
          interpreted so as to read on the support web 18 of Instance                 
          ‘043 and/or the support web 26 of Instance ‘686 (answer, page               
          9), whereas appellant argues that the “release material”                    
          language of the claims is not met by the support webs 18 and                
          26 of the respective references.                                            
          Like appellant, we do not believe that the ordinarily skilled               
          artisan would consider that web 18 of Instance ‘043 and/or web              
          26 of Instance ‘686 provides a “release material” when such                 
          language is given its broadest reasonable interpretation                    
          consistent with appellant’s specification as such would be                  
          understood by one of ordinary skill in the art (In re Sneed,                
          710 F.2d 1544, 218 USPQ 385 (Fed. Cir. 1983); In re Tanaka,                 
          551 F.2d 855, 193 USPQ 138 (CCPA 1977)).  The disclosures of                
          the present application, the Instance ‘043 patent, and the                  
          Instance ‘686 patent are consistent in their use of terms like              
          “release material,” “backing of release material” and “release              
          backing material” to describe the web of material that carries              


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