Appeal No. 2004-0184
Application No. 09/837,824
each and every element of a claimed invention. RCA Corp. v.
Applied Digital Data Sys., Inc., 730 F.2d 1440, 1444, 221 USPQ
385, 388 (Fed. Cir. 1984).
In determining that the subject matter recited in claim 1 is
anticipated by Hand (see page 3 in the answer), the examiner
finds that the limitation in the claim requiring the body to have
“a side profile defined by upper and lower elliptically extending
faces” is met by Hand’s depiction in Figure 5 of a body side
profile defined by outer convex surfaces 48 and 54.1 As
persuasively argued by the appellant, however, Hand does not
provide the evidentiary basis necessary to support this finding.
The fact that Hand’s surfaces 48 and 54 are broadly described and
shown as being “convex” does not necessarily mean that they are
“elliptically extending” as set forth in claim 1, even when this
claim language is considered in light of the dictionary
definitions of the terms “ellipse” and “elliptical” advanced by
the examiner (see page 3 in the answer). Although the term
“convex” encompasses elliptically extending surfaces, it also
1 In making this finding, the examiner mistakenly refers to
reference numerals 41 and 42 which actually denote the body
members having the surfaces 48 and 54.
4
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