Appeal No. 1999-0653 Page 10
Application No. 08/226,564
With regard to the appellant's suggestion (main brief, page 9) that the lug 13, which is attached
to a threaded rod 10, is movable with respect to the combination of parts 16 and 20 of Schou and thus
is not "attached to the mounting end" of the main body as required by claim 1, we note initially that, in
proceedings before the Patent and Trademark Office, 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). From our perspective, the term
"attached, " when given its broadest reasonable interpretation, does not require rigid fixation of the
attached elements. This interpretation is consistent with the use of the term "attached" to describe the7
relationship of the shaft 29 and mounting end 20 of Figure 1 in the appellant's specification (page 9, line
4). As illustrated in Figure 1 and discussed on pages 10-14 of the appellant's specification, the shaft 29
is supported on a head support 80, which is axially movable relative to the mounting end 20 of the main
body 16. Therefore, the term "attached" as used in the appellant's specification cannot preclude relative
axial movement. Moreover, we note that the lug 13 and rod 10 are locked in position relative to the
key hole guard 15 when the follower 20 is screwed down tight against the key hole guard and that the
guard is locked in position relative to the sleeve 26 once the padlock hasp is passed through the aligned
7The term "attached" is generally understood to mean fastened or joined by sticking, tying, etc. Webster's
New World Dictionary, Third College Edition (Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1988)
Page: Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007