Appeal No. 2006-2314 Παγε 3 Application No. 10/856,225 appellants’ arguments set forth in the brief, appellants have not persuaded us of reversible error on the part of the examiner. Accordingly, we affirm the examiner’s rejections for substantially the reasons set forth by the examiner in the answer. We add the following for emphasis. § 102(b) Rejection Anticipation by a prior art reference does not require that the reference recognize either the inventive concept of the claimed subject matter or the inherent properties that may be possessed by the prior art reference. See Verdegaal Bros. Inc. v. Union Oil Co., 814 F.2d 628, 633, 2 USPQ2d 1051, 1054 (Fed. Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 827 (1987). A prior art reference anticipates the subject matter of a claim when the reference discloses every feature of the claimed invention, either explicitly or inherently (see Hazani v. U.S. Int'l Trade Comm'n, 126 F.3d 1473, 1477, 44 USPQ2d 1358, 1361 (Fed. Cir. 1997) and RCA Corp. v. Applied Digital Data Systems, Inc., 730 F.2d 1440, 1444, 221 USPQ 385, 388 (Fed. Cir. 1984)). However, the law of anticipation does not require that the reference teach what the appellants teach in their specification, but only that the claims on appeal "read on" something disclosed in the reference (see Kalman v. Kimberly-Clark Corp., 713 F.2d 760, 772, 218 USPQ 781,Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007