Appeal No. 1997-0926
Application No. 08/552,045
that an effective amount of vitamin E will be in
contact with the blood during storage.
It is believed that any method of incorporating the
vitamin E into the blood bag system so as to increase the
blood stability is suitable for the present invention.
For example, the vitamin E can be present in the
blood-containing compartment or can be stored in a second
sealed compartment attached to the main body of the bag
or the tubing and then added to the blood after blood
collection. (Col. 7, lines 3-18).
The examiner describes Valentine as teaching "the coating
of the inside of a blood bag with lubricous vitamin E"
(answer, page 4) and concludes that "[i]t would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to add the vitamin
E to the silicone resin of the inner layer of the blood bag of
Yoshida to increase blood component stability" (id. at 4 and
5).
In our opinion, the examiner’s stated position is based
on impermissible hindsight gleaned from appellants' own
disclosure and not from any fair teaching or suggestion found
in the applied Yoshida and Valentine patents themselves.
Contrary to the
examiner's assertion, Valentine does not disclose that vitamin
E
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