Appeal No. 2000-1474 Page 8
Application No. 08/962,902
without the recital of structure, material, or acts in
support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to
cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts
described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has
established a framework for determining whether an element of
a claim invokes means-plus-function treatment. See Al-Site
Corp. v. VSI Int'l, Inc., 174 F.3d 1314, 1318, 50 USPQ2d 1161,
1166 (Fed. Cir. 1999); Sage Prods. Inc. v. Devon Indus., Inc.,
126 F.3d 1420, 1427, 44 USPQ2d 1103, 1109 (Fed. Cir. 1997. If
the word "means" appears in a claim element in association
with a function, the presumption is that Section 112,
Paragraph 6 applies. See id. This presumption collapses,
however, if the claim itself recites sufficient structure,
material, or acts to perform the claimed function. See id.
Without the term "means," a claim element is presumed to fall
outside means-plus-function strictures. See id. Once again,
however, that presumption can collapse when an element lacking
the term "means" nonetheless relies on functional terms
rather than structure or material to describe performance of
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