Ex parte SHINOHARA - Page 6




          Appeal No. 1998-1097                                                        
          Application No. 08/557,484                                                  

          intrinsic capacitance present in the device and are not                     
          separate, distinct capacitor elements as claimed.”                          
               After careful review of Appellant’s arguments, it is our               
          opinion that such arguments are not commensurate with the                   
          scope of claim 1.  It is axiomatic that, in proceedings before              
          the PTO, claims in an application are to be given their                     
          broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the                      
          specification, and that claim language should be read in light              
          of the specification as it would be interpreted by one of                   
          ordinary skill in the art.  In re Sneed, 710 F.2d 1544, 1548,               
          218 USPQ 385, 388 (Fed. Cir. 1983).  Moreover, limitations are              
          not to be read into the claims from the specification.  In re               
          Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 1184, 26 USPQ2d 1057, 1059 (Fed.                  
          Cir. 1993) citing In re Zletz, 893 F.2d 319, 321, 13 USPQ2d                 
          1320, 1322 (Fed. Cir. 1989).  In our view, even assuming,                   
          arguendo, that “separate and distinct” language would                       
          distinguish over the parasitic junction capacitances C  and Cj1     j2             
          in Senuma, no such language exists in the claims.  We further               
          note that the capacitances 2 and 3 illustrated in Appellant’s               
          Figure 1, which correspond to the claimed first and second                  
          capacitors in appealed claim 1, are described at page 13,                   

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