Appeal No. 2003-1572
Application No. 09/661,747
for the treatment of edema and other tissue swelling comprising an
enclosure containing “a medically effective amount” of buckwheat
hulls.
We have searched appellant’s specification in vain for any
indication of precisely what constitutes “an effective treatment
amount” and/or “a medically effective amount” of buckwheat hulls
within the context of appellant’s invention (i.e., reducing
swelling in effected tissue areas). In this regard, we appreciate
that the terms “medically effective amount” and “effective
treatment amount” appear at several places in the specification
(e.g., pages 6, 12 and 18). In that these terms are not self
defining, the fact that the terms of the claims find antecedent
basis in the specification does not mean that the specification
informs the ordinarily skilled artisan as to their scope.
We are also aware that appealed dependent claim 10, which is
similar to original dependent claim 2, sets forth that the
buckwheat hulls of claim 9 have “a planar distribution of between
about 10 and about 30 buckwheat hulls per square centimeter” of the
surface area of the enclosure. Notwithstanding appellant’s view to
the contrary (brief, page 4), this limitation does not serve to
clarify the scope of the buckwheat hull “amount” limitation of
claim 9. First, since the “planar distribution” limitation of
9
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