While terms of orientation (e.g., horizontal vs. vertical, up vs. down) provide more fodder for opposing argument than is probably desired, the Federal Circuit has been fairly lenient on the patentee in its loose interpretation of these terms.
Background / Facts: The patent at issue here involves commercial cheese-making vats having contra-rotating shafts (as opposed to co-rotating) mounted inside “a pair of interconnected generally cylindrical wall portions with horizontally disposed axes.”
Issue(s): Whether the axes must be exactly parallel to the ground in order to satisfy the “horizontally disposed” limitation.
Holding(s): No. “[A] person of ordinary skill in this art would understand ‘horizontal’ as a term used to distinguish horizontal vats from vertical ones, not to require precise horizontal orientation of the shafts. Thus, the claim term ‘horizontal’ in this art permits some degree of incline.”