Appeal No. 2005-0482 Page 5
Application No. 09/875,787
locking ring and bushing of Hollis, we find nothing in appellants’ specification which
supports such a limited definition.2
For the foregoing reasons, we find appellants’ arguments that Hollis does not
anticipate independent claim 1 unpersuasive. The rejection of claim 1, as well as claims
2, 3 and 6 which appellants have grouped therewith (brief, page 4), as being anticipated
by Hollis is sustained.
Appellants’ only argument with respect to the rejection of claims 8-10, 13 and 14,
namely, that Hollis lacks a step of installing a retaining ring on the terminal which
longitudinally engages the terminal (brief, page 5), is unpersuasive for the reasons
discussed above. It follows that the rejection of these claims as being anticipated by
Hollis is also sustained.
The rejection of claims 4, 5, 7 and 17 as being anticipated by Hollis, on the other
hand, is not sustained. There is no indication that the swaging operation described by
Hollis for installing the terminal and locking ring onto the side wall of the battery casing
will result in welding or fusing together of the surfaces of the locking ring and terminal as
required by these claims. Hollis refers to the locking ring and terminal as being
2 In proceedings before it, the USPTO 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, absent an express definition in their specification, the
fact that appellants can point to definitions or usages that conform to their interpretation does not make
the PTO's definition unreasonable when the PTO can point to other sources that support its interpretation.
Id., 127 F.3d at 1056, 44 USPQ2d at 1029.
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