Appeal No. 2000-0721 Page 9
Reissue Application No. 08/628,287
Error Correctable by Reissue
We begin by noting that 35 U.S.C. § 251, ¶ 1, specifies
in pertinent part the following remedy.
Whenever any patent is, through error without any
deceptive intention, deemed wholly or partly
inoperative or invalid, by reason of a defective
specification or drawing, or by reason of the
patentee claiming more or less than he had a right
to claim in the patent, the Commissioner shall, on
surrender of such patent ... reissue the patent for
the invention disclosed in the original patent ....
"'[T]he whole purpose of the [reissue] statute, so far as
claims are concerned, is to permit limitations to be added to
claims that are too broad or to be taken from claims that are
too narrow.’" In re Weiler, 790 F.2d 1576, 1580, 229 USPQ
673, 675 (Fed. Cir. 1986) (quoting In re Handel, 312 F.2d 943,
948,
136 USPQ 460, 464 (CCPA 1963)). “That is what the statute
means in referring to ‘claiming more or less than he had a
right to claim.’" Handel, 312 F.2d at 948, 136 USPQ at 464.
With these principles in mind, we consider the examiner's
rejection.
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