I'm trying to understand the relationship between a general and a specific feature. I'm specifically relating to an EPO guideline:
Generic disclosure and specific examples
In considering novelty, it is to be borne in mind that a generic disclosure does not usually take away the novelty of any specific example falling within the terms of that disclosure, but that a specific disclosure does take away the novelty of a generic claim embracing that disclosure, e.g. a disclosure of copper takes away the novelty of metal as a generic concept, but not the novelty of any metal other than copper, and one of rivets takes away the novelty of fastening means as a generic concept, but not the novelty of any fastening other than rivets.
I will try to add an example:
Claim: There is a drill suitable for a velocity 1000 and 20000 rpm to drill in a specific material X.
Now, someone else found out after quite an effort and a lot of studies, that, when you set the velocity to 10000 rpm you will gain the best results to drill in this material X (in terms of time, wear, result). Would this discovery still be covered by the claim/patent before or would it be new?