Appeal 2006-3235
Reexamination Control No. 90/006,696
1 1024, 43 USPQ2d at 1548. This holding has no relevance to Appellant’s
2 Claim 11, which includes only one occurrence of “said liquid crystal.”
3 Another argument by Appellant for treating the presumption of open-
4 endedness as rebutted is that in contrast to the terms “method” and
5 “process,” which inherently are open-ended, the term “liquid crystal” used in
6 the preamble of the claim would have been understood to mean “a single
7 liquid crystal.” Br. 26. We do not agree. The phrase “liquid crystal”
8 without being preceded by “a” is broad enough to refer to a single liquid
9 crystal material or to a plurality of liquid crystal materials. Moreover, even
10 assuming for the sake of argument that “liquid crystal” should be construed
11 to mean “a liquid crystal,” that phrase would read on a mixture of liquid
12 crystal materials because “a” in a claim is customarily construed to mean
13 “one or more.” KCJ Corp. v. Kinetic Concepts, Inc., 223 F.3d 1351, 1357,
14 55 USPQ2d 1835, 1839 (Fed. Cir. 2000
15 Appellant also argues that the presumption has been rebutted because
16 in contrast to open-ended method or apparatus claims, which are
17 characterized by having the term “comprises” followed by a list of steps or
18 elements joined by the connective “and,” the term “comprises” in Claim 11
19 is followed by a plurality of elements connected by repeated occurrences of
20 the disjunctive “or,” a format Appellant contends conveys the meaning of
21 “exclusive of others.” Br. 26. We do not agree. Rather than implying
22 exclusivity, the multiple uses of “or” would have been understood as simply
23 making it clear to the reader before reaching the end of the claim that the
24 liquid crystal materials are being recited in the alternative. Appellant’s
25 related contention that in order to be open-ended, the claim would have to
26 use syntax such as “said liquid crystals comprise K18 and K24” (Br. 27) is
39
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