Appeal No. 1998-0578
Application 08/349,633
hazardous materials, (2) materials identified by the trade
names of the hazardous materials, (3) a preset mixture of
hazardous materials, or (4) a variable mixture of hazardous
materials. Claim 21 specifies that the classification enables
“such system to track each container of hazardous material in
any one of said designations from its beginning as an in-use
hazardous material through its disposal as a waste hazardous
material.”
The key to this appeal centers around the claimed
recitation of “first data representing containers storing
hazardous materials that are in-use (emphasis added).” The
appellant’s specification in lines 21-23 on page 54 defines
the term as follows: “As stated above, the term in-use is
used to define a group of chemical containers that are
maintained in inventory and are presently being used”
(emphasis added). In contrast, the specification in lines 11-
14 on the same page defines “waste” as “a grouping of chemical
containers of chemical stock waiting to be disposed of and
removed from the inventory systems.” It is manifestly clear
that in light of the appellants’ specification, hazardous
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