Appeal No. 2002-0697
Application No. 09/625,857
the lid body 26. The gap 41a between the lid body 26
and the shaft 38 is of a radius that varies in a
stepwise manner, the circulation gas circulates in the
reverse direction therein, and thus the reaction
product gases do not pass between the lid body 26 and
the shaft 38, and thus do not leak into the clean room
in which the dispersion [sic, diffusion] apparatus S1
is installed [column 6, line 64, through column 7, line
38].
As conceded by the examiner (see page 3 in the answer), the
Okase apparatus does not respond to the limitation in
representative claim 21 requiring “a plurality of gas supply
tubes arranged concentrically with respect to the heating chamber
for introducing a gas into the heating chamber.” The Okase
apparatus has but one such gas supply tube 33.
The appellant’s contention that Okase also fails to respond
to the limitation in the preamble of claim 21 calling for a
“batch-type kiln” is not persuasive. During patent examination
claims are to be given their broadest reasonable interpretation
consistent with the underlying specification without reading
limitations from the specification into the claims. In re
Prater, 415 F.2d 1393, 1404-05, 162 USPQ 541, 550-51 (CCPA 1969).
Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (G. & C. Merriam Co. 1977)
defines the term “kiln” as meaning “an oven, furnace, or heated
enclosure used for processing a substance by burning, firing, or
drying.” This definition, which is fully consistent with the
6
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007