Appeal No. 2000-0182 Page 9
Application No. 08/831,327
insertion section increasing substantially monotonically" lack
written description support in the original disclosure.
The original disclosure provides in numerous places that the
leading end portions of the elastic grasping members are spread
in a spiral arrangement/manner (see e.g., p. 7, p. 13 and Figure
5). In addition, the original disclosure provides (p. 14) that
"the leading end portions of the respective elastic grasping
members are arranged in the spiral manner as shown in Fig. 5 and
spread outwards from the center axis of the insertion section 46
so as to be arranged along the circle of a diameter at least [ N]
20 mm in the spread state."
We have reviewed the originally filed disclosure and find no
express disclosure for the above-noted limitations of claim 1.
In addition to an express disclosure, the written description
requirement can be satisfied by showing that the disclosed
subject matter, when given its "necessary and only reasonable
construction," inherently (i.e., necessarily) satisfies the
limitation in question. See Kennecott Corp. v. Kyocera Int'l,
Inc., 835 F.2d 1419, 1423, 5 USPQ2d 1194, 1198 (Fed. Cir. 1987),
cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1008 (1988). In our view, based upon the
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