Appeal No. 2004-0440 Page 4
Application No. 10/083,171
the electrical heater element positioned adjacent the
aromatic fragrance means to heat the fragrance means to
produce an aromatic fragrance.
Claim 5, the only other independent claim before us for review, contains all of the
limitations of claim 1 and further recites a cover connected to the circuit board and
surrounding a portion of the electrical heater element.
Consistent with appellants’ underlying disclosure2 (see specification, page 6,
second paragraph), we interpret the “control circuit with a multi-position circuit with a
multi-position switch that provide varying degrees of heat to an electrical heater
element” recited in claims 1 and 5 as requiring a control circuit and switch which provide
at least two “on” settings or positions in which different degrees of current are provided
to the electrical heater element. In other words, this limitation in claims 1 and 5 would
not be met by a simple on/off control circuit and switch. The examiner concedes that
Stein’s automotive fragrance dispenser, which is disclosed simply as including
“sufficient electrical circuitry to act as a heating element when plugged into a
conventional automobile cigarette lighter” (column 2, lines 52-54) and which “may or
2 In proceedings before it, the PTO applies to the verbiage of claims the broadest reasonable
meaning of the words in their ordinary usage as they would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the
art, taking into account whatever enlightenment by way of definitions or otherwise that may be afforded by
the written description contained in the applicant's specification. In re Morris, 127 F.3d 1048, 1054, 44
USPQ2d 1023, 1027 (Fed. Cir. 1997). Moreover, no claim may be read apart from and independent of the
supporting disclosure on which it is based. See In re Cohn, 438 F.2d 989, 993, 169 USPQ 95, 98 (CCPA
1971).
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