Appeal No. 2003-1477
Application No. 09/248,533
[t]he examiner has unduly broadly read the claim 1
limitations of independent claim 4 by equating
contactless-mode module contact zones, as claimed, to
deeply buried coil contacts of a transmission system
that, in fact, is connected to contactless-mode module
contact zones through electrically conductive channels
formed in many intermediate steps. (Brief, page 6).
We cannot agree.
It is well settled that, during examination proceedings,
claims are given their broadest interpretation consistent with
the specification. In re Hyatt, 211 F.3d 1367, 1372, 54 USPQ2d
1664, 1667 (Fed. Cir. 2000). Here, the appellants have conceded
that contactless-mode contacts 4, 5 of Figure 23 are deposited
via a screen printing method. It may be true that such a method
is not used to deposit other elements, such as contacts 32, 33
(which along with contacts 4, 5 make up the contactless-mode
module contact zones of Figure 23). However, we find nothing and
the appellants point to nothing in appealed claim 4 or in their
specification disclosure which requires that all elements of the
zones in question be deposited by means of a printing method. To
the contrary, the originally filed specification expressly
discloses that the second conductor layer 23 shown in appellants’
drawing, which forms the here claimed contactless-mode module
contact zones (e.g., see lines 21-25 on page 4), may be
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