Interference No. 104,290
meanings to a count or that the count is readable on more than
one embodiment does not render the count ambiguous. See id.
at 32, 194 USPQ at 547.
The specific language of the count at issue is the
recitation wherein electrodes are "inserted into tissue and
surround a selected mass . . . ... While this portion of the
count is recited in functional language, it is our conclusion of
law that the plain meaning of "selected mass" in the count means
a preselected mass, i.e., the ability to position and deploy the
claimed electrodes around a "treatment region" as LeVeen defines
a tumor in his specification. LX-1002 at pages 4, 8, 9 and 17.
The electrodes are thin, flexible wires, and we regard the
ability of the wires to actually surround the tissue intended
to be ablated to be an important feature of the claimed subject
matter.
The following are our findings of fact with respect to
LeVeen's priority case-in-chief. In 1992 and 1993, Dr. Robert
LeVeen, the junior party inventor, was employed as a radiologist
at the V.A. Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska and at the Univer
sity of Nebraska Medical Center. LX-11ý2, 911.
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