Appeal No. 1997-4013 Page 5 Application No. 08/145,867 We will not sustain the rejection of claims 38 and 39 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being anticipated by Bruder. Likewise, we will not sustain the rejection of claims 38 and 39 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being anticipated by Teraoka. Anticipation is established only when a single prior art reference discloses, expressly or under the principles of inherency, each and every element of a claimed invention. RCA Corp. v. Applied Digital Data Sys., Inc., 730 F.2d 1440, 1444, 221 USPQ 385, 388 (Fed. Cir. 1984). In other words, there must be no difference between the claimed invention and the reference disclosure, as viewed by a person of ordinary skill in the field of the invention. Scripps Clinic & Research Found. v. Genentech Inc., 927 F.2d 1565, 1576, 18 USPQ2d 1001, 1010 (Fed. Cir. 1991). In addition, it is well established that an anticipation rejection cannot be predicated on an ambiguous reference. Rather, statements and drawings in a reference relied on to prove anticipation must be so clear and explicit that those skilled in the art will have no difficultyPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007