Appeal No. 2003-0697
Application 09/750,088
The inquiry under the second paragraph of § 112 is
to determine whether the claims set out and circumscribe a
particular area with a reasonable degree of precision and
particularity. It is here where the definiteness of the language
employed must be analyzed, not in a vacuum but, always in light
of the teachings of the prior art and of the particular
application disclosure as it would be interpreted by one
possessing the ordinary level of skill in the pertinent art.
In re Moore, 439 F.2d 1232, 1235, 169 USPQ 236, 238 (CCPA 1971).
In so analyzing the language of the appealed claims, we
find that the area or subject matter defined by these claims has
been set out and circumscribed with a reasonable degree of
precision and particularity. Specifically, we agree with the
examiner’s aforequoted acknowledgment that “[t]he claims appear
to merely recite air or any combination of air, liquid, and
solids passing through a microwave active space enclosed in a
microwave compatible material.”
This analysis or interpretation of the appealed claims
is consistent with the literal wording or language of these
claims. Further, this claim interpretation is reasonable and
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