Appeal No. 1998-2833
Application No. 08/585,403
(Fed. Cir. 1989)). Here, the appellants’ specification does
not mention “substantially completely fills” but, instead,
teaches that “[t]he projecting portion of the bundle [i.e.,
the portion of the bundle extending without the holder] is
preferably enclosed in a mold during injection so that the
bundle to the tip work face is infused and encapsulated by the
elastomer” (page 5) and that the injection of the elastomer
into the bundle “may be 4at significant pressure and infuses
the elastomer matrix bond into all of the interstices of the
bundle” (page 8). Accord-ingly, we conclude that the term
“completely fills” means complete filling of all of the
interstices in the bundle from the bottom of the cup holder to
the working face tips and that while the modifier
“substantially” broadens the term to some degree, it is well
settled that such a modifier cannot be allowed to negate the
meaning of the term which it modifies. See, e.g., Arvin
7
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