Fletcher YoderThe domestic industry requirement of 19 U.S.C. § 1337 necessary to give make 19 U.S.C. § 1337 applicable may be satisfied by substantial licensing activities alone. Also, claim differentiation creates a strong presumption that a claim term in an independent claim is different from a similar claim term in a dependent claim unless the specification has defined the terms as equivalent or differentiation has been clearly disavowed.
As used in the claims at issue, the terms “containing” and “mixture” are open-ended terms that do not limit the claims to the recited elements. Further, the term “ingredients” is not limited to only those starting materials used to make the product, but instead refers to those elements of the product remaining after combination. Nothing in the specification or the prosecution history provided a sufficient reason to deviate from the ordinary meaning of these terms.
Because words often have multiple dictionary definitions, the intrinsic record must always be consulted to identify which of the different possible dictionary meanings of the claim terms in issue is most consistent with the use of the words by the inventor.
During examination, claims terms are given their broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the interpretation one of ordinary skill in the art would reach in view of the specification.