Appeal No. 1999-2509
Application 08/752,917
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 apparent from the plain language of appealed claim 14 that the chocolate candy
product is defined in product-by-process format, see generally, In re Thorpe, 777 F.2d 695, 697,
227 USPQ 964, 966 (Fed. Cir. 1985), according to which the confectionery composition
comprising a syrup forms a plurality of “veins” that are “interspersed” in the chocolate during the
coextrusion3 of a mixture of particles of chocolate and particles of said confectionary
composition formed in the extruder through the die thereof, wherein the mixture is maintained in
a non-pourable state by controlling the temperature so that the components of the mixture
plastically deform. The term “veins” is, of course, plural, and since this term is not defined in
appellant’s specification, it has the common, dictionary meaning of the word “vein” in which, in
context, one substance is contained within another substance, such as “4. Geol. A regularly
shaped and lengthy occurrence of an ore: lode. 5. A long, wavy strip of color, as in wood or
marble.”4 Thus, in context, the plural veins of the confectionary composition are “interspersed”
in the chocolate, as the term “interspersed,” also undefined in the specification, has the common,
dictionary meaning of “1. To distribute among other things at intervals. 2. To supply or diversify
with things distributed at intervals;”5 or of “1. To scatter among other things. 2. To diversify or
3 We use the term “coextrusion” in its common, technical dictionary meaning of “[e]xtrusion-
forming of plastic or metal products in which two or more compatible feed materials are used in
physical admixture through the same extrusion die.” McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and
Technical Terms, page 400 (Sybil P. Parker, ed., New York, McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1994).
4 The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition, page 1340 (Boston, Houghton
Mifflin Company, 1982); Webster’s II New Riverside University Dictionary, page 1279 (Boston,
Houghton Mifflin Company. 1988).
5 The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition, page 672.
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