Appeal No. 2000-0798
Application No. 08/410,852
Rejection Pursuant to 37 CFR § 1.196(b)
Pursuant to 37 CFR § 1.196(b), claims 1 to 5 and 7 to 12
are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over
Rubricuis in view of Eaton or Linden, taken with Hamas.
Rubricuis discloses a medical instrument comprising a
metal scalpel blade 1 attached to a handle 2 which is made of
polypropylene (col. 4, line 14) and is colored so that
different size scalpel blades can be easily identified (col.
2, lines 44 and 49). Rubricuis does not specifically
discloses that the instrument should be autoclavable, but it
would have been obvious to make the handle out of autoclavable
plastic in view of Rubricius’ disclosure that it can be
"presterilized", and the teaching of Hamas that plastic used
in surgical instruments should be autoclavable (col. 2, lines
46 to 52).
Claim 1 calls for the handle to be molded to encase the
end of the metallic shaft, and claim 7, for encapsulating an
end of the shaft in synthetic material. Rubricuis discloses
that scalpel blade 1 is attached to the handle 4 by "snap
clamp 2 or other suitable means" (col. 2, lines 11 to 13).
Both Eaton and Linden disclose medical instruments in which a
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