Ex parte DEGUCHI - Page 7




          Appeal No. 1998-0688                                                        
          Application 08/274,158                                                      

          adds that a skilled artisan finds a “small reflectance” to                  
          fall between 1.5% and 20%.                                                  
               As pointed out by our reviewing court, we must first                   
          determine the scope of the claim.  “[T]he name of the game is               
          the claim.”  In re Hiniker Co., 150 F.3d 1362, 1369, 47 USPQ2d              
          1523, 1529 (Fed. Cir. 1998).  Claims will be given their                    
          broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the                      
          specification, and limitation appearing in the specification                
          are not to be read into the claims.  In re Etter, 756 F.2d                  
          852, 858, 225 USPQ 1, 5 (Fed. Cir. 1985).                                   
               We note that Appellant’s claim 1 recites                               
               said document covering means having a substantially                    
               achromatic document covering surface with a regular                    
               reflectance of from 1.5% to 20% and giving a relative                  
               intensity of irregularly reflected light ... of from N4                
               to N8.5 in terms of lightness in the Munsell color system              
               [emphasis added].                                                      
               Appellant’s claim 1, in addition to the different                      
          elements of a conventional image processor, recites specific                
          properties for the surface of the document cover.  These                    
          properties include a substantially achromatic surface as well               
          as a particular range for the regular reflectance and the                   
          irregularly reflected light intensity.  We find that Hosaka in              


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