What's In A Name
What’s in a name? Juliet’s famous question about Romeo’s Montague name brings about one of the most well-known Shakespeare quotes - that a rose by any other name is still a rose. At the USPTO, examiners have a tendency to be very flexible in mapping claim elements to prior art references under the guise of the Broadest Reasonable Interpretation. For example, it would not phase most patent prosecutors if an examiner alleged that a claim to a “flower” was anticipated by a prior art reference disclosing a “thorn” under the theory that a flower, under the BRI, can refer to the whole stem and flower, and thus include thorns. Strained and even nonsensical interpretations are common, and maintained even up to appeal, as we see in a recent example regarding engine pistons (15/512,560) to Volvo Truck. Here, the invention relates to a reciprocating machine, such as a combustion engine, having groove patterns provided in cylinder walls for collecting oil. Claim 1 is below: 1. A reciproca...