Appeal No. 2005-2584
Application No. 09/897,331
phases of the first and second variations, means that a predetermined number of
wobbles (second variations) correspond to a predetermined number of channel bits
represented by the first variations. Additionally, we note that the dictionary definitions
asserted by the examiner do not appear to correspond to this discussion in appellants’
specification. Further, our reviewing court has stated that they view “extrinsic evidence
in general as less reliable than the patent and its prosecution history in determining how
to read claim terms, for several reasons. First, extrinsic evidence is by definition not
part of the patent and does not have the specification’s virtue of being created at the
time of patent prosecution for the purpose of explaining the patent’s scope and
meaning” Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F3d 1303, 1318, 75 USPQ2d 1321, 1330 (Fed.
Cir. 2005). Accordingly, we consider the scope of the, claim 4, limitation “the phase of
the second variations being coupled to the phase of the first variations” to be as
described on page 6 of appellants’ specification “a predetermined number of wobbles
corresponds to a predetermined number of channel bits represented by the first
variations.”
We next consider the teachings of Maeda. We do not find that Maeda teaches
the phase of the second variations being coupled to the phase of the first variations.
Maeda teaches an optical disk where, to increase the amount of information that can be
stored on the disk, the address of locations on the disk are encoded in the wobbles of
the tracks. See column 3, lines 51-55. The phase of the wobbles determines whether
the address data encoded in the block of wobbles is a “0” or a “1.” See Column 7 lines
6
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