Appeal No. 2001-2589 Page 8
Application No. 09/072,911
the support member, an arrangement that in our view would not to be conducive to
cutting sheet material, particularly paper, cloth or the like. Further in this regard, it
would appear that the upstanding sides of the guide (13) would inhibit insertion of sheet
material into the cutting position in such a manner as to allow accurate alignment with
the blade. Second, owing to the fact that the blade is longer than the guide is wide and
the device is described as a substitute for a miter box, it certainly is not contemplated
that the Rotax device cut less than the full width of an article, that is, to a “desired
depth” in the context of this terminology as explained on page 1 of the appellants’
specification.2 Third, considering that the common definition of “scissors” is “a cutting
instrument having two blades whose cutting edges slide past each other” 3 (emphasis
added), Rotax fails to disclose “a scissors” as is required in line 2 of claim 1. Fourth,
the claim requires that there be a “planar angle mensuration4 device,” that is, a device
that measures a planar angle, and while the Rotax guide (13) is pivotable to align the
article to be cut at an angle to the blade, it does not measure that angle and therefore,
as disclosed, is not a mensuration device. Fifth, even if the guide and its support are
2Referring to the appellants’ specification, it is clear that the “depth” of the cut is intended to mean
the distance from the edge of the sheet material to the end of the cut, and that “desired depth” is intended
to mean a selected depth which can be short of the entirety..
3See, for example, Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 1976, page 1035.
4The common definition of “mensuration” is the act of measuring. See, for example, Webster’s
New Collegiate Dictionary, 1976, page 718.
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