Appeal No. 2002-1319 Page 6
Application No. 08/974,971
Before turning to the proper construction of the claim, it
is important to review some basic principles of claim
construction. First, and most important, the language of the
claim defines the scope of the protected invention. Yale Lock
Mfg. Co. v. Greenleaf, 117 U.S. 554, 559 (1886) ("The scope of
letters patent must be limited to the invention covered by the
claim, and while the claim may be illustrated it cannot be
enlarged by language used in other parts of the specification.");
Autogiro Co. of Am. v. United States, 384 F.2d 391, 396, 155 USPQ
697, 701 (Ct. Cl. 1967) ("Courts can neither broaden nor narrow
the claims to give the patentee something different than what he
has set forth [in the claim]."). See also Continental Paper Bag
Co. v. Eastern Paper Bag Co., 210 U.S. 405, 419 (1908); Cimiotti
Unhairing Co. v. American Furuya Ref. Co., 198 U.S. 399, 410
(1905).
Furthermore, the general claim construction principle that
limitations found only in the specification of a patent or patent
application should not be imported or read into a claim must be
followed. See In re Priest, 582 F.2d 33, 37, 199 USPQ 11, 15
(CCPA 1978). One must be careful not to confuse impermissible
imputing of limitations from the specification into a claim with
the proper reference to the specification to determine the
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