Appeal No. 2000-1862
Application 08/834,061
limitation or particular embodiment which is disclosed in the specification. See In re Zletz, 893
F.2d 319, 321-22, 13 USPQ2d 1320, 1322 (Fed. Cir. 1989); In re Priest, 582 F.2d 33, 37, 199
USPQ 11, 15 (CCPA 1978). Thus, the terms in the appealed claim must be given their ordinary
meaning unless another meaning is intended by appellant as established in the written description
of the specification. See, e.g., Morris, supra; Zletz, supra (“During patent examination the
pending claims must be interpreted as broadly as their terms reasonably allow. When the
applicant states the meaning that the claim terms are intended to have, the claims are examined
with that meaning, in order to achieve a complete exploration of the applicant’s invention and its
relation to the prior art. See In re Prater, 415 F.2d 1393, 1404-05, 162 USPQ 541, 550-51
(CCPA 1969) (before the application is granted, there is no reason to read into the claim the
limitations of the specification.).”).
It is readily apparent from the plain language of appealed claim 37 that the same is
directed to a rare earth-doped sol-gel glass monolith product that appellant intends “for” use as
“[a] calibration medium” for calibration of an optical instrument of the type having the
components recited in the preamble of the claim, including a spectral light source capable of
emitting light in the “far UV range.” The body of the claim specifies that the rare earth-doped
sol-gel glass monolith product must be “capable of assuming a position within the light path of
such an optical instrument” (emphasis supplied) recited in the preamble of the claim. Such “an
optical instrument” is broadly described in the written description of the specification as
“[u]traviolet (UV) absorbance detectors or detection systems” (e.g., page 1, lines 12-16; page 7,
lines 11-16; page 10, lines 7-11) and is not limited to the preferred embodiments disclosed in the
specification (e.g., page 14, lines 2-7). Indeed, appellant discloses that
[i]t is within the scope of the instant invention for the above described teachings of the
instant invention, including the above described calibration medium, to be used to
calibrate any of a number of detectors, detection systems, instruments, [sic] analysis
apparatuses. In particular, such detectors, detection systems, instruments, analysis
apparatuses that are particularly adapted or configured to sense spectral emissions
extending into the far UV range. [Page 28, line 23, to page 29, line 1.]
printed publication . . . [the applicant] may submit an appropriate oath or declaration to overcome
the patent or publication.”
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