Ex Parte BERGEN et al - Page 10



                    Appeal No. 2003-1967                                                                                                                                  
                    Application No. 08/970,889                                                                                                                            

                    either requirement [of 37 CFR § 1.192(c)(7)], the Board is free                                                                                       
                    to select a single claim from each group of claims subject to a                                                                                       
                    common ground of rejection as representative of all claims in                                                                                         
                    that group and to decide the appeal of that rejection based                                                                                           
                    solely on the selected representative claim.")  See also, In re                                                                                       
                    Watts, 354 F.3d 1362, 1368, 69 USPQ2d 1453, 1457 (Fed. Cir.                                                                                           
                    2004).                                                                                                                                                
                              Appellants' sole argument is set forth on page 31 of the                                                                                    
                    brief.  There, Appellants argue that claims 17-20 are patentable                                                                                      
                    for the reasons discussed with respect to claim 1.  See page 31                                                                                       
                    of Appellants' brief.                                                                                                                                 
                              As pointed out by our reviewing court, we must first                                                                                        
                    determine the scope of the claim.  "[T]he name of the game is the                                                                                     
                    claim."  In re Hiniker Co., 150 F.3d 1362, 1369, 47 USPQ2d 1523,                                                                                      
                    1529 (Fed. Cir. 1998).  Claims will be given their broadest                                                                                           
                    reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification, and                                                                                      
                    limitations appearing in the specification are not to be read                                                                                         
                    into the claims.  In re Etter, 756 F.2d 852, 858, 225 USPQ 1, 5                                                                                       
                    (Fed. Cir. 1985).                                                                                                                                     
                              We note that claim 17 is directed to an entirely different                                                                                  
                    invention than claim 1.  In particular, Appellants' claim 17                                                                                          

                                                                                   1010                                                                                   




Page:  Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  Next 

Last modified: November 3, 2007