Appeal No. 2006-2168
Application No. 10/421,683
Specification as a whole (particularly pages 15 and 16 and Figures 7 and 8)
provides ample description of these terms such that one of ordinary skill in the
bushing art would understand the scope of the claimed invention. According to
Appellant, the term "portion" as used in the specification refers to parts of the area
of the screens, and it is clearly taught that these areas will vary with the size of the
bushing and screen, as well as the particular condition being addressed, i.e., size of
the bushings, area, number of tips, etc., will vary based on the product being
manufactured. Appellant maintains that the Specification shows the "peripheral
portion" as a portion that surrounds the "generally central portion," the term
"generally” indicating that the central portion may be non-symmetrical on the
center of the screen.
In Appeal No. 2006-0192, we determined that one of ordinary skill in the art
in reading Appellant’s application would have understood the term "end portions”
as defining areas of the screen proximate each end of the bushing and the term
“mid or central portion” as an area of the screen located between the “end
portions.” Likewise, in the present application, we find that the corresponding
claim terms "generally central portion" and "peripheral portion" would appraise
one of ordinary skill in the art of the scope of the appealed claims. We note, for
example, that the meaning of these terms is readily apparent from the description
in connection with Figure 8 of “a low flow central portion 70 that is not
symmetrically located in the center of the screen 68, but is offset” and “a medium
flow portion 72 of the screen [which] surrounds the low flow center portion
70,”Specification 16. Moreover, we are confident that one of ordinary skill in the
art would understand that the portions are not limited to the embodiments shown in
the drawings, but may be adjusted using the guidelines set forth in the
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Last modified: November 3, 2007