Ex Parte Allen et al - Page 3




              Appeal No. 2005-2197                                                               Page 3                 
              Application No. 10/751,432                                                                                


               Answer (mailed April 14, 2005) for the Examiner's reasoning in support of the                            
               rejections, and to the Brief (filed April 1, 2005) and the Reply Brief (filed June 9, 2005)              
               for the Appellants’ arguments there against.                                                             
                                                       OPINION                                                          
                      We start with the claim language.  Gechter v. Davidson, 116 F.3d 1454, 1457,                      
               1460 n.3, 43 USPQ2d 1030, 1032, 1035 n.3 (Fed. Cir. 1997); In re Paulsen, 30 F.3d                        
               1475, 1479, 31 USPQ2d 1671, 1674 (Fed. Cir. 1994).  In proceedings before the U.S.                       
               Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), claims must be interpreted by giving words their                      
               broadest reasonable meanings in their ordinary usage, taking into account the written                    
               description found in the specification.  In re Morris, 127 F.3d 1048, 1054, 44 USPQ2d                    
               1023, 1027 (Fed. Cir. 1997)("[T]he PTO applies to the verbiage of the proposed                           
               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 Zletz, 893 F.2d 319,                    
               321-22, 13 USPQ2d 1320, 1322 (Fed. Cir. 1989)("During patent examination the                             
               pending claims must be interpreted as broadly as their terms reasonably allow.").                        
                      Here, the preamble of appealed claim 23 recites: “A hauler vehicle for mining                     
               operation comprising...” It is by now axiomatic that the term "comprising" in a claim                    
               not only alerts potential infringers that the recited components are essential, but that                 








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