Appeal No. 2006-0673 Page 11
Application No. 09/919,555
indicate[ ] that there are no negative control probes on the array," (id. at l. 23), or may
"indicate[ ] that one or more deletion control probe carrying features may have errors
which may make their use unreliable." (Id. at ll. 26-27.) Giving the representative claim
its broadest, reasonable construction, the limitations require saving some sort of data in
a memory and forwarding the data to a location remote from where an array is
fabricated. We will use this interpretation in deciding all the rejections at issue.
2. Anticipation Determination
"Having construed the claim limitations at issue, we now compare the claims to
the prior art to determine if the prior art anticipates those claims." In re Cruciferous
Sprout Litig., 301 F.3d 1343, 1349, 64 USPQ2d 1202, 1206 (Fed. Cir. 2002).
"[A]nticipation is a question of fact." Hyatt, 211 F.3d at 1371, 54 USPQ2d at 1667
(citing Bischoff v. Wethered, 76 U.S. (9 Wall.) 812, 814-15 (1869); In re Schreiber, 128
F.3d 1473, 1477, 44 USPQ2d 1429, 1431 (Fed. Cir. 1997)). "A reference anticipates a
claim if it discloses the claimed invention 'such that a skilled artisan could take its
teachings in combination with his own knowledge of the particular art and be in
possession of the invention.'" In re Graves, 69 F.3d 1147, 1152, 36 USPQ2d 1697,
1701 (Fed. Cir. 1995) (quoting In re LeGrice, 301 F.2d 929, 936, 133 USPQ 365, 372
(CCPA 1962)).
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