Appeal No. 2006-1878 Page 4
Application No. 10/435,367
additional cations, or positive ions, to counteract the anions, or negative ions, in the
gastric acid.” Specification, ¶ 27. Polar lipids are utilized to achieve this effect. Id.,
¶ 28, ¶ 48. The specification provides guidance on the types and amounts of the polar
lipid that may be present in the dietary supplement. Id., ¶ 49, 69. The claim element,
itself, however, does not contain any express words that would limit the quantity of polar
lipid in the supplement. The limitation that it strengthens the mucous gut membrane
refers to a property or characteristic of the lipid when administered, but does not serve
as a requirement that the amount of lipid present in the supplement be actually effective
to achieve this effect. Consequently, as we interpret the claim, any amount of polar lipid
in a dietary supplement would be sufficient to meet this claim limitation. The soluble
fiber and nutricine components have the same construction as the polar lipid
supplement, where the component is required to have a specific property (“slows
passage of foodstuff”; “increases” digestive tract integrity), but not to be present in a
quantity necessary to achieve a result.
During prosecution, the Board is required to give claims their broadest
reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification. In re Bond, 910 F.2d 831,
833, 15 USPQ2d 1566, 1567 (Fed. Cir. 1990). In the absence of clear and explicit
wording in the claim that the recited components are present in amounts effective to
treat and/or inhibit ulcers, we conclude that the claimed dietary supplement reads on the
presence of these components in ineffective amounts, even in trace amounts.
In reaching this construction, we have recognized that the claim’s preamble
states that the supplement is for use in treating ulcers. Preamble language that merely
states the purpose or intended use of an invention is generally not treated as limiting the
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