Appeal No. 2002-0555
Application 09/361,514
Figures 5 and 7 of Lee for the pins (30c) to engage and apply a
force to the end portions (26a) of the mounting brackets (26). In
fact, Lee notes in column 4, lines 39-44, that although the
number of protrusions or pins (30c) of Figure 5 are equal to the
number of expansion boards (20) that can be mounted to the
receptacle (16), there does not necessarily need to be a
corresponding number, and the cover member (30) can be formed
having a smaller number of pins/protrusions (30c).
It is rank speculation on the examiner’s part to urge that
the pins/protrusions (30c) of Lee are “force exerting members”
which engage the mounting brackets (26) when the cover (30) is
secured to the mounting panel (16) by fasteners (30a, 32). In our
view, when the “plurality of depending force exerting members” of
appellant’s claim 1 is given its broadest reasonable
interpretation consistent with the specification, and it is
remembered that claim language cannot be read in a vacuum, but
instead must be read in light of the specification as it would be
interpreted by one of ordinary skill in the pertinent art (See In
re Sneed, 710 F.2d 1544, 1548, 218 USPQ 385, 388 (Fed. Cir.
1983); In re Bond, 910 F.2d 831, 833, 15 USPQ2d 1566, 1567 (Fed.
Cir. 1990) and In re Morris, 127 F.3d 1048, 1054, 44 USPQ2d 1023,
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