Appeal No. 2001-0472 Page 4
Application No. 09/153,951
The test for determining compliance with the written
description requirement is whether the disclosure of the
application as originally filed reasonably conveys to the
artisan that the inventor had possession at that time of the
later claimed subject matter, rather than the presence or
absence of literal support in the specification for the claim
language. See Vas-Cath, Inc. v. Mahurkar, 935 F.2d 1555,
1563-64, 19 USPQ2d 1111, 1116-17 (Fed. Cir. 1991) and In re
Kaslow, 707 F.2d 1366, 1375, 217 USPQ 1089, 1096 (Fed. Cir.
1983).
The examiner determined (answer, pp. 3-4) that the phrase
"being at least one half of the predetermined length and less
than the first length" recited in lines 5-6 and 9-10 of claim
22 did not find written description support in the original
disclosure. The appellants argue (brief, pp. 9-11) that the
above-noted phrase is inherent from the description on page 4,
line 20 to page 5, line 9 taken together with Figure 2. The
examiner responded (answer, pp. 7-8) to the appellants'
argument by explaining why the above-noted phrase was not
inherent from the original disclosure.
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