Appeal No. 2007-0495
Application No. 10/699,510
material and carrier gas is then expelled through the nozzle toward the substrate (p. 3,
para. 29; Figure 1).
PRINCIPLES OF LAW
After a prima facie case of unpatentability has been established, the burden of
going forward shifts to the applicant. In re Piasecki, 745 F.2d 1468, 1472, 223 USPQ
785, 788 (Fed. Cir. 1984).
The test for obviousness is not what the individual references teach but what the
combined teachings of the references would have suggested to one having ordinary skill
in the art. In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 425, 208 USPQ 871, 881 (CCPA 1981).
Arguments in the brief do not take the place of evidence in the record. In re
Schulze, 346 F.2d 600, 602, 145 USPQ 716, 718 (CCPA 1965).
If the word “means” appears in a claim element in combination with a function, it
is presumed to be a means-plus-function element to which 35 U.S.C. § 112, sixth
paragraph, applies. Al-Site Corp. v. VSI Int’l Inc., 174 F.3d 1308, 1320, 50 USPQ2d
1161, 1166 (Fed. Cir. 1999).
The first step in construing a “means-plus-function” limitation is to determine the
function of the limitation. The second step is to determine the corresponding structure
described in the specification and equivalents thereof. Structure is “corresponding
structure” only if the specification or prosecution history clearly links or associates that
structure to the function recited in the claim. Medtronic Inc. v. Advanced Cardiovascular
Sys. Inc., 248 F.3d 1303, 1312, 58 USPQ2d 1607, 1614 (Fed. Cir. 2001).
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