Appeal No. 1997-4107
Application No. 08/510,730
OPINION
We have carefully considered all of the arguments
advanced by appellants and the examiner, and agree with the
appellants that the aforementioned rejection under 35 U.S.C. §
112, second paragraph, is not well founded. Accordingly, we
will not
sustain this rejection.
The Rejection under Section 112 -- Indefiniteness
“The legal standard for definiteness under the second
paragraph of 35 U.S.C. § 112 is whether a claim reasonably
apprises those of ordinary skill in the art of its scope.”
See
In re Warmerdam, 33 F.3d 1354, 1361, 31 USPQ2d 1754, 1759
(Fed. Cir. 1994). The inquiry is to determine whether the
claim sets out and circumscribes a particular area with a
reasonable degree of precision and particularity. The
definiteness of the language employed in a claim must be
analyzed not in a vacuum, but in light of the teachings of the
particular application as it would be interpreted by one
possessing the ordinary level of skill in the pertinent art.
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