Appeal No. 99-0920
Application No. 08/629,323
necessarily contain disclosure sufficient to meet the written
description requirement relative to claims which are generic
as to the shape (in this case, “curvilinear adhesive zones”);
the missing descriptive matter must necessarily be present in
the specification such that one skilled in the art will
recognize such disclosure. Tronzo v. Biomet, Inc., 156 F.3d
1154, 1159, 47 USPQ2d 1829, 1834 (Fed. Cir. 1998).
Thus, to resolve the merits of the rejection before us,
we apply the established test for description compliance and
begin the application of this test with a review of the
definitions for “annular” and “curvilinear”. The definition
of record for “curvilinear” is “[f]ormed, bounded, or
characterized by curved lines” whereas the definition for
“annular” is “[s]haped like or forming a ring” (Webster’s II,
New Riverside University Dictionary, 1984). These definitions
plainly reveal that the originally disclosed phrase “annular
adhesive zones” encompasses zone shapes which are like or in
the form of a ring whereas the now claimed phrase “curvilinear
adhesive zones” encompasses a broader variety of zone shapes
since they need not be ring-like but only need be
“characterized by curved lines”.
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