Appeal No. 2003-0454 Page 5
Application No. 09/644,734
In Seattle Box, the court set forth the following
requirements for terms of degree:
When a word of degree is used the district court must determine whether
the patent's specification provides some standard for measuring that
degree. The trial court must decide, that is, whether one of ordinary skill
in the art would understand what is claimed when the claim is read in light
of the specification.
In Shatterproof Glass Corp. v. Libbey-Owens Ford Co., 758 F.2d 613, 624, 225
USPQ 634, 641 (Fed. Cir. 1985), the court added:
If the claims, read in light of the specifications [sic], reasonably apprise
those skilled in the art both of the utilization and scope of the invention,
and if the language is as precise as the subject matter permits, the courts
can demand no more.
Indeed, the fundamental purpose of a patent claim is to define the scope of
protection3 and hence what the claim precludes others from doing. All things
considered, because a patentee has the right to exclude others from making, using and
selling the invention covered by a United States letters patent, the public must be
apprised of what the patent covers, so that those who approach the area circumscribed
by the claims of a patent may more readily and accurately determine the boundaries of
3 See In re Vamco Machine & Tool, Inc., 752 F.2d 1564, 224 USPQ 617 (Fed. Cir. 1985).
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