Appeal No. 1998-2610 Page 5
Application No. 08/451,950
15 F.3d 1573, 1577, 27 USPQ2d 1836, 1840 (Fed. Cir. 1993)).
Here, claim 18 specifies in pertinent part the following
limitations: "[a] hearing protection earplug comprised of
materials with embedded metallic particles ...." The ordinary
and accustomed meaning of a "particle" is “[a] very small
portion of something material ...." Webster's Third New
International Dictionary 1646 (1971) (copy attached). In view
of this meaning, the limitations require pieces of metal that
are very small in relation to the earplug in which the pieces
are embedded.
The examiner fails to show a disclosure of the
limitations in the Yoshii. The reference teaches "a
displacement type ear microphone ...." Col. 1, ll. 9-10.
Although the ear microphone includes "a coil spring of
metallic or plastic material," col. 3, l. 16, or "a fibrous
sleeve 12 formed of mesh of metallic or glass fibers," col. 6,
ll. 51-53, neither the spring nor the sleeve is very small
vis-à-vis the microphone. To the contrary, the coil spring is
large enough in diameter to be "fastened to a projection 1a of
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