Appeal No. 1998-1655 Page 16
Application No. 08/367,766
the first main surface of the cartridge." (Examiner's Answer
at 8.)
“‘[T]he main purpose of the examination, to which every
application is subjected, is to try to make sure that what
each claim defines is patentable. [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) (quoting Giles S. Rich,
The Extent of the Protection and Interpretation of
Claims--American Perspectives, 21 Int'l Rev. Indus. Prop. &
Copyright L. 497, 499, 501 (1990)). Claim 4 specifies in
pertinent part the following limitations: "said support means
includes four reference surfaces for contacting said first
main surface of said cartridge." Giving the claim its
broadest reasonable interpretation, the limitations recite at
least four surfaces for contacting the first main surface of
the disk cartridge.
Figures 3 and 26 of Yamada show that the tip of each of
the positioning pins 10 and 10' features at least three
surfaces. More specifically, the Figures depict a flat
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