Appeal 2007-2745
Application 09/761,671
1 shareholder value to changes in selected drivers for retail as well as
2 industrial marketing (Rappaport 172:Top ¶).
3 34. Rappaport teaches that most managers believe they can identify the
4 key drivers for their business. However, these drivers may in many cases
5 be appropriate for a short-term-earnings-driven business rather than an
6 organization searching for long-term value, Experience shows that value
7 driver sensitivities are not always obvious. Therefore, quantifying
8 sensitivities is a valuable exercise for both operating and senior
9 management (Rappaport 172:First full ¶).
10 PRINCIPLES OF LAW
11 Claim Construction
12 During examination of a patent application, pending claims are given
13 their broadest reasonable construction consistent with the specification. In
14 re Prater, 415 F.2d 1393, 1404-05, 162 USPQ 541, 550 (CCPA 1969); In
15 re Am. Acad. of Sci. Tech Ctr., 367 F.3d 1359, 1364, (Fed. Cir. 2004).
16 Although a patent applicant is entitled to be his or her own lexicographer of
17 patent claim terms, in ex parte prosecution it must be within limits. In re Corr,
18 347 F.2d 578, 580, 146 USPQ 69, 70 (CCPA 1965). The applicant must do so by
19 placing such definitions in the Specification with sufficient clarity to provide a
20 person of ordinary skill in the art with clear and precise notice of the meaning that
21 is to be construed. See also In re Paulsen, 30 F.3d 1475, 1480, 31 USPQ2d 1671,
22 1674 (Fed. Cir. 1994) (although an inventor is free to define the specific terms
23 used to describe the invention, this must be done with reasonable clarity,
24 deliberateness, and precision; where an inventor chooses to give terms uncommon
25 meanings, the inventor must set out any uncommon definition in some manner
13
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