Appeal No. 2003-1025
Application No. 09/224,918
to determine [perform the first process] [then perform the second
process]."
To determine whether claim 1 has an adequate written
description, we must first determine what is being claimed.
Our reviewing court states, "[t]he terms used in the claims bear
a 'heavy presumption' that they mean what they say and have the
ordinary meaning that would be attributed to those words by
persons skilled in the relevant art." Texas Digital Sys. Inc v.
Telegenix Inc., 308 F.3d 1193, 1202, 64 USPQ2d 1812, 1817 (Fed.
Cir. 2002), cert. denied, 538 U.S. 1058 (2003).
Upon our review of Appellants' specification, we fail to
find any definition of the term "upon" that is different from the
ordinary meaning. We find the ordinary meaning of the term
"upon" is best found in the dictionary. We note that the
definition most suitable for "upon" is "on".2 In turn, we find
the ordinary meaning of the term "on" is best found in the
dictionary. We note that the definition most suitable for "on"
is "used to indicate occurrence at a given time."3
2 The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition, 1982,
page 1328. Copy provided to Appellant.
3 The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition, 1982,
page 867. Copy provided to Appellant.
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