Appeal No. 2006-1117 Page 4
Application No. 10/461,308
films, layers or elements. See Genentech Inc. v. Chiron Corp., 112
F.3d 495, 501, 42 USPQ2d 1608, 1613 (Fed. Cir. 1997)(“‘Comprising’
is a term of art used in claim language which means that the named
elements are essential, but other elements may be added and still
form a construct within the scope of the claims.”). The second
portion of the body of claim 1 requires that at least a part of the
first resin layer is PPN (the first resin layer “comprises”) and at
least a part of the second resin layer is PET (the second resin
layer “comprises”). Giving the claim language its broadest
reasonable meaning in light of the specification as it would have
been understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, without
reading limitations into the claims from the specification, we find
no requirement that the first and second resin layers are adjacent
or touching each other. See the specification, page 3, ll. 29-32,
where it is taught that “[o]ne or more additional resin layers” can
be present in the multilayer film structure. See also page 9, ll.
22-36, of the specification where it is taught that the “multilayer
films of the current invention” can include more than one layer of
PPN (i.e., 3GN) and/or PET, in addition to “additional layers of
other polymers” that are compatible with PPN and PET. We also note
that the specification discloses that the “multilayer oriented
films or containers of the invention can be coated with a metal”
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