Court Opinion

ID: 9456321
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:48:55.32539+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:55.875087
License: Public Domain

LANE, Judge
(dissenting in part).
I dissent from the majority’s holding that claim 12 is anticipated by Levy. Such holding is, in my opinion, not in accord with recognized use of the English language. The claim calls for a “cover” for the melt container. Illustrative of such a cover is the element 14 in appellant’s Fig. 2.

Admittedly, this is not the only possible structure meeting the term “cover” in claim 12. Since no special meaning in the art is asserted, I give the word the broadest meaning attributed to it in ordinary usage. In Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (1969), I find the following relevant definition for “cover” as a noun: “something that is placed over or about another thing.” In The Random House Dictionary of the English Language (1969), I find the following: “cover * * * n. * * * something that covers;” and the verb form is defined as follows: “cover * * to place something over or upon.” None of these definitions covers Levy’s nipple 32, which is placed not over, not upon, but in the container wall. The Patent Office position, affirmed by the majority, that “cover” reads on Levy’s element 32, is believed to be incorrect. I know of no lexicographic authority for that position.
The majority opinion appears to have transformed an anticipation rejection into an obviousness rejection and affirmed it.
Claim 13 depends from claim 12, and the foregoing analysis applies equally to claim 13. I therefore join the majority opinion as to claims 1-3, 6-8, concur in the result as to claim 13, and dissent as to claim 12.