Appeal No. 98-2118 Application No. 08/459,986 We are unpersuaded by the appellants' arguments. The terminology in a pending application's claims is to be given its broadest reasonable interpretation (In re Morris, 127 F.3d 1048, 1056, 44 USPQ2d 1023, 1028 (Fed. Cir. 1997) and In re Zletz, 893 F.2d 319, 321, 13 USPQ2d, 1320, 1322 (Fed. Cir. 1989)) and limitations from a pending application's specification will not be read into the claims (Sjolund v. Musland, 847 F.2d 1573, 1581-82, 6 USPQ2d 2020, 2027 (Fed. Cir. 1989)). Moreover, anticipation by a prior art reference does not require either the inventive concept of the claimed subject matter or the recognition of inherent properties that may be possessed by the prior art reference. See Verdegaal Bros., Inc. v. Union Oil Co., 814 F.2d 628, 633, 2 USPQ2d 1051, 1054 (Fed. Cir. 1987). A prior art reference anticipates the subject matter of a claim when that reference discloses every feature of the claimed invention, either explicitly or inherently (see In re Schreiber, 128 F.3d 1473, 1477, 44 USPQ2d 1429, 1431 (Fed. Cir. 1997) and Hazani v. Int’l Trade Comm’n, 126 F.3d 1473, 1477, 44 USPQ2d 1358, 1361 (Fed. Cir. 1997)); however, the law of anticipation does not 5Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007