Appeal 2007-2005
Application 10/066,110
1 PRINCIPLES OF LAW
2 Claim Construction
3 We begin with the language of the claims. The general rule is that terms in
4 the claim are to be given their ordinary and customary meaning. Johnson
5 Worldwide Assocs. v. Zebco Corp., 175 F.3d 985, 989, 50 USPQ2d 1607, 1610
6 (Fed. Cir. 1999). In the USPTO, claims are given their broadest reasonable
7 interpretation in light of the Specification as interpreted by one of ordinary skill in
8 the art.
9 [T]he Board is required to use a different standard for construing
10 claims than that used by district courts. We have held that it is error
11 for the Board to “appl[y] the mode of claim interpretation that is used
12 by courts in litigation, when interpreting the claims of issued patents
13 in connection with determinations of infringement and validity.” In re
14 Zletz, 893 F.2d 319, 321, 13 USPQ2d 1320 (Fed. Cir. 1989); accord
15 In re Morris, 127 F.3d 1048, 1054, 44 USPQ2d 1023 (Fed. Cir. 1997)
16 (“It would be inconsistent with the role assigned to the PTO in issuing
17 a patent to require it to interpret claims in the same manner as judges
18 who, post-issuance, operate under the assumption the patent is
19 valid.”). Instead, as we explained above, the PTO is obligated to give
20 claims their broadest reasonable interpretation during examination.
21 In re Am. Acad. of Sci. Tech Ctr., 367 F.3d 1359, 1364, 70 U.S.P.Q.2d
22
23 1827, 1830 (Fed. Cir. 2004).
24
25 “ [A] claim preamble has the import that the claim as a whole suggests for
26 it.” Bell Communications Research, Inc. v. Vitalink Communications Corp. , 55
27 F.3d 615, 620, 34 USPQ2d 1816, 1820 (Fed.Cir. 1995). If the claim preamble,
28 when read in the context of the entire claim, recites limitations of the claim, or, if
29 the claim preamble is “necessary to give life, meaning, and vitality” to the claim,
30 then the claim preamble should be construed as if in the balance of the claim.
7
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