Appeal No. 1997-3096
Application 08/391,407
and 32 would require the “application” of the “flat and flexible material” and “sheet of material”
article “to the inner panel of a vehicle” (brief, e.g., pages 6-7), we do not interpret these claims to
be so limited. To the extent that the cited language of claims 16, 31 and 32, which are drawn to a
product, is intended by appellants as a method or process of use limitation of that product, such a
limitation has no place in a product claim, and indeed, none of the appealed claims specify that
the “flat and flexible material” or “sheet of material” is attached to the “inner panel of a vehicle,”
and the claimed “sheet” article is disclosed to “be used to advantage in non-automotive
applications” (specification, page 8, lines 7-8). Cf. In re Wiggins, 397 F.2d 356, 359 n.4, 158
USPQ 199, 201-02 n.4 (CCPA 1968), and cases cited therein (“[A]ppellant’s discovery of the
analgesic properties of ‘O2’ and of a composition containing it could properly be claimed only as
a method or process of using that compound or composition in accordance with the provisions of
35 U.S.C. 100(b) and 101.”).
In giving the claim terms the broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the
written description in appellants’ specification as it would be interpreted by one of ordinary skill
in this art, we find that the language “a deflector for application to the inner panel of a vehicle to
reduce the intrusion of water and sound” or “attenuate sound” would include a “barrier . . . [for]
inhibiting passage of water, sound” which can be attached to an “inner panel” that can be part of
a “door” or of another part of the “vehicle” (e.g., page 4, lines 10-19). The “deflector” as
claimed is a “flat and flexible material” or a “sheet of material” which can be “a generally thin
planar sheet” (id., page 4, lines 20-21). We find no disclosure in appellants’ specification with
respect to the claim language requiring that the “sheet” of material has “a peripheral shape
generally matching the peripheral configuration of the inner panel.”
In the absence of a stated meaning by appellants, we give the modifying terms “generally”
and “peripheral” their common dictionary meaning which most fits the facts of this case, that is,
“[i]n disregard of particular instances and details; generally speaking,” and, “[p]ertaining to,
located on or comprising the periphery” which is “[t]he region or area immediately beyond a
precise boundary,” respectively.6 See, e.g., Morris, 127 F.3d at 1055-56, 44 USPQ2d at 1029 (“It
6 The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition, pages 552 and 923 (Boston,
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1982).
- 7 -
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007