Appeal 2007-2557
Application 10/094,866
Each segment comprises7 a continuous strand of material and claim 1
provides structural requirements for this continuous strand of material.
Specifically, the continuous strand of material:
1. Is interconnected end to end so as to generally encompass a radial
space within the segment and
2. Comprises a repeating series of interconnected repeating W-shaped
strand configurations.
Claim 1 requires that the interconnected repeating W-shaped strand
configurations have a repeating dip, rise, dip, rise, loop, dip, rise, dip, rise,
loop patterned configuration.
The majority takes issue with the structural requirements of the
segments. According to the majority, the recited structure for the segments
“does not, to our knowledge, have a well-recognized meaning in the stent
art” (supra 6). Nevertheless, the majority concludes that “the claim
language does not exclude additional twists and turns, et cetera, from the
configuration, so long as the configuration satisfies the language of the
claim” (id.). If, by this statement, the majority is intimating that the terms
“including” or “comprising” permit alterations within a defined sequence
(e.g., dip, dip, rise, dip, rise, rise, loop, loop, . . . etc.), they have cited no
precedent to support this interpretation of the claim. Instead, the majority
asserts that the claim terms are given “their broadest reasonable
interpretation consistent with the Specification (supra 6). In this regard, I
7 I interpret the term “including,” as it is used in claim 1, to mean
“comprising.” See Manual of Patent Examining Procedure § 2111.03 (“The
transitional term “comprising”, which is synonymous with “including,”
“containing,” or “characterized by,” is inclusive or open-ended and does not
exclude additional, unrecited elements or method steps.”)
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