Interference No. 105,113
court interprets words in a claim as one of skill in the art at the time of the
invention would understand them. . . . Therefore the testimony of one skilled in
the art about the meaning of claim terms at the time of the invention will almost
always qualify as relevant evidence."
Motion 2, at 17. Cheung's reliance on this Eastman passage overlooks the fact that it follows the
court's conclusion that the district court properly considered such testimony after concluding that
the meaning of the disputed claim could not be ascertained from the intrinsic evidence. 114 F.3d
at 1553-55, 42 USPQ2d at 1741-42. Where, as here, the intrinsic evidence is sufficient to
establish the meanings of the disputed terms, consideration of such extrinsic evidence is not
permitted, as explained in Eastman:
If, of course, the meaning of the claims is clear from their language in view of the
context provided by the specification and the prosecution history, the trial court
should limit its consideration of extrinsic evidence. See Vitronics Corp. v.
Conceptronic, Inc., 90 F.3d 1576, 1583, 39 USPQ2d 1573, 1577 (Fed. Cir.1996).
Extrinsic evidence--whether providing context for the claims or explaining claim
meaning to one of skill in the art--cannot contradict claim language. Id.
Eastman, 114 F.3d at 1555, 42 USPQ2d at 1742.
In any event, assuming for the sake of argument that the foregoing intrinsic evidence
fails to settle the interpretation question, Dr. Geffken's testimony (CX 2009) fails to persuade us
that the terms "thermal anneal chamber" and "annealing chamber" in Ritzdorf's claims should be
limited to sealed enclosures having tops, bottoms, and surrounding sides. Moreover, we will
assume, without deciding, that Dr. Geffken is qualified to express opinions mentioned in his
declaration. The preliminary motion (at 5-6, ¶¶ 7, 9) relies on the following parts of paragraphs
11 and 16 of Dr. Geffken's testimony, of which the sentences in paragraph 11 are identified by
letters for purposes of discussion:
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