Appeal No. 2002-0076 Page 6
Application No. 09/144,842
shows a speaker in the base unit, it fails to disclose any circuitry whereby the speaker
in the base unit can be used with the microphone in the housing 16." (Reply Br. at 4.)
"Analysis begins with a key legal question -- what is the invention claimed?"
Panduit Corp. v. Dennison Mfg. Co., 810 F.2d 1561, 1567, 1 USPQ2d 1593, 1597 (Fed.
Cir. 1987). In answering the question, "the Board must give claims their broadest
reasonable construction. . . ." In re Hyatt, 211 F.3d 1367, 1372, 54 USPQ2d 1664,
1668 (Fed. Cir. 2000). "Moreover, limitations are not to be read into the claims from the
specification." In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 1184, 26 USPQ2d 1057, 1059 (Fed.
Cir. 1993) (citing In re Zletz, 893 F.2d 319, 321, 13 USPQ2d 1320, 1322 (Fed. Cir.
1989)).
Here, claim 1 specifies in pertinent part the following limitations: "a base station
having . . . a speaker . . . and . . . a wireless remote microphone apparatus having a
microphone. . . ." Giving the representative claim its broadest, reasonable construction,
the limitations require a base station to have a speaker and a remote unit to have a
microphone. The claim does not require, however, that the speaker in the base station
be used with the microphone in the remote unit.
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