Appeal No. 1999-0427
Application 08/782,272
The purpose of the written description requirement is
to ensure that the applicants convey with reasonable clarity
to those skilled in the art that they were in possession of
the invention as of the filing date of the application. For
the purposes of the written description requirement, the
invention is "whatever is now claimed." Vas-cath, Inc. v.
Mahurkar, 935 F.2d 1555, 1564, 19 USPQ2d 1111, 1117 (Fed. Cir.
1991). The key fact in this case is that the claimed length
to width ratio and depth to width ratio include values which
are within the ranges originally disclosed in the
specification, but also include values which fall outside of
the originally disclosed range. Thus, even though appellants
disclosed values of length, depth and width which fall within
the ranges now claimed, the rejection is based on the fact
that the claimed range is broader than the disclosed range,
and thereby, includes values not originally disclosed.
As noted above, the proper question to consider is
whether appellants’ original specification would have
suggested that they were in possession of the invention now
being claimed. The original specification merely noted a
range of dimensions of manufactured microchannels which had
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