Appeal No. 2005-1115
Application 09/269,369
also, e.g., The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College
Edition 395-96 (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1982).
I cannot find in appealed claims 1 and 7 any limitation
which requires a different definition of the term “a diffuser”
than the written description in the specification conveys to one
of ordinary skill in this art. Indeed, the limitations
characterizing the “nozzles” of the claimed “diffuser” in claims
1 and 7 are found in diffuser 110 of FIG. 7 because the nozzles
112 are fixed to elongated body 114 in the specified positioning
relative to one another for the specified direction of the
pressurized fluid, thus capable of “causing” a liquid and a
pressurized solution “to commingle,” that is, “[t]o blend or
cause to blend,” in any manner and to any extent, however small,
in any container. See, e.g., The American Heritage Dictionary,
Second College Edition 297. The fourth limitation characterizing
the “nozzles” in claim 1 is found in diffuser 110 of FIG. 7
because the plain language of the claims requires that the
nozzles must be capable of maintaining “system back pressure” in
the diffuser per se just as described in the specification (page
16). The limitations of appealed claims 3 through 5 and 11
through 13 are satisfied by the diffuser 110 of FIG. 7 as well.
Further, in this respect, when the preambular language of
the claims coupled with the last limitation of the “nozzles” in
each (see above pp. 9-10) is considered in the context of the
claimed invention as a whole, including consideration thereof in
light of the written description in appellant’s specification,
the same constitutes an intended use of a diffuser having nozzles
that are capable of maintaining system back pressure in that use
as specified, and thus this claim language adds no additional
structural limitation(s) to the claims. See generally, Corning
Glass Works v. Sumitomo Elect. U.S.A., Inc., 868 F.2d 1251, 1257,
14
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