Interference No. 105,113
gas environment are both consistent with the ordinary definitions of "anneal" and "chamber"
arrived at above. The same is true of his sentence (d) assertion that the annealing of gold and
other noble metals do not require control of the gaseous environment and his sentence (e)
assertion that a sealed enclosure is not required when annealing copper at low temperatures for
short times. In fact, Ritzdorf's application, as noted above, contemplates annealing copper
metallizations at temperatures as low a room temperature ('613 specification at 17, ll. 18-22).
The sentence (f) and (g) statements regarding the known need for an sealed enclosure when
annealing copper at 250 °C - 400 °C are irrelevant because the claims do not specify annealing at
temperatures in that range. Moreover, these temperatures exceed those contemplated by
Ritzdorf, which are temperatures of "about 250 degrees Celsius and below" (id. at 23, ll. 8-9).
For the foregoing reasons, whether or not Dr. Geffken's testimony is entitled to
consideration we are of the view that the terms "thermal anneal chamber" and "annealing
chamber" in Ritzdorf's claims, when given their broadest reasonable interpretation consistent
with Ritzdorf's originally filed disclosure, refer to an annealing apparatus which has surrounding
sides and which may or may not form a sealed enclosure. The question before us, therefore, is
whether Ritzdorf's involved '613 application describes a system including such an annealing
apparatus as well as the other claimed components.
As explained in Cordis Corp. v. Medtronic AVE Inc., 339 F.3d 1352, 1364, 67 USPQ2d
1876, 1885 (Fed. Cir. 2003):
Paragraph 1 of section 112 of the Patent Act provides that the
"specification shall contain a written description of the invention." To fulfill the
written description requirement, the patent specification must describe an
- 16 -
Page: Previous 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007