Appeal No. 97-4258
Application No. 08/429,966
with the portion of the body lumen to be treated.”
It is the examiner’s position that all of this structure
is disclosed or taught by Pinchuk, and thus is anticipated by
this reference. Specifically, the examiner finds the helix
stent construction to be disclosed in lines 2-4 of column 7,
and the drug location in lines 22-24 of that same column. The
appellants dispute these findings.
Claim 14 requires that there be “a drug compounded into
the polymeric filament” (emphasis added). In view of the
explanation of the invention presented in the specification,
we understand this to mean not that the drug is coated upon
the exterior surface of the filament, but that it is
impregnated in the polymeric material from which the filament
is made (pages 12-15). No such teaching is present in
Pinchuk. While this reference includes polymers in the list
of materials from which the stent can be made, with regard to
the incorporation of drugs therein its teaching is limited to
coating (column 7, line 18) and the statement that “[t]he
stents can be treated so that drugs can be eluted therefrom”
(column 7, lines 22-23, emphasis added). No amplification of
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