Appeal No. 2004-0643
Application No. 09/682,211
Vali discloses a method for delivering radiation directly to
a target within a patient, wherein the target is tissue having a
malignant pathology (col. 6, lines 39-64), comprising generating
radiation from any suitable source (col. 6, lines 29-33),1
coupling the radiation to a hollow fiber waveguide (40) (col. 2,
lines 46-47; col. 6, lines 29-33 and 44-46; figure 4),2 and
delivering coupled radiation directly to the target through the
hollow fiber waveguide (col. 6, lines 38-46). Vali is silent as
to whether the radiation source is portable.
The appellants do not define “portable”. We therefore give
this term its ordinary and customary meaning, see Allen
Engineering Corp. v. Bartell Industries Inc., 299 F.3d 1336,
1344, 63 USPQ2d 1769, 1772 (Fed. Cir. 2002), which is:
“1. Capable of being carried. 2. Easily carried or moved.”3 The
radiation source illustrated by Vali (44, figure 4) is not shown
as being attached to anything. Hence, this illustration would
1 There is no dispute as to whether the generated radiation
is collected. The appellants acknowledge that devices for
collecting radiation were known in the art (specification,
page 3, item 0010).
2 The appellants’ capillary tube is a hollow glass tube
(specification, page 3, item 0011).
3 Webster’s II New Riverside University Dictionary 916
(Riverside 1984). A copy of this definition is provided to the
appellants with this decision.
3
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