Interference No. 103,197 Because Buschmann’s involved claims are not patent claims, Mannheimer’s burden of proof with respect to proving unpatentability is a preponderance of the evidence. See Bruning v. Hirose, 161 F.3d 681, , 48 USPQ2d 1934, 1938(Fed. Cir. 1998)("[T]his court holds that, during an interference involving a patent issued from an application that was copending with the interfering application, the appropriate standard of proof for validity challenges is the preponderance of the evidence standard."). The first matter to consider is, of course, claim construction. As explained in In re Morris, 127 F.3d 1048, 1054, 44 USPQ2d 1023, 1027 (Fed. Cir. 1997), "the PTO applies to the verbiage of the proposed claims the broadest reasonable meaning of the words in their ordinary usage as they would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, taking into account whatever enlightenment by way of definitions or otherwise that may be afforded by the written description contained in the applicant's specification." See also In re Zletz, 893 F.2d 319, 321, 13 USPQ2d 1320, 1321-22 (Fed. Cir. 1989): - 10 -Page: Previous 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007