Appeal No. 2003-1340 Page 6
Application No. 10/072,247
further note that while the claim requires that the taper be “from” a proximal end “to” a
distal end of the connection adapter, according to the drawings, the taper in Sanderson
extends only about twenty percent of the distance from the distal terminus towards the
proximal end and not, in our view “from” the proximal end.
The Section 102 Rejection Based On Holmgreen
Holmgreen discloses a nasotracheal tube insertion connector 3 which comprises
a hollow bellows-like body 3 that can be bent as shown in Figure 2, a tapered
longitudinally slitted tip 4 attached to the distal end of the body, and a receiving end 8 at
the proximal end of the body for mating with a conventional anesthesia connector 11.
The purpose of the stylet is to facilitate the attachment of tapered tip 4 to a nasotracheal
tube 2 that has been intubated into a patient’s nostril. To accomplish this task, an
expansion collar 14 is placed in a recessed portion 16 of the distal end of a stylet 18,
and the stylet inserted through connector 3 until it forces the segments of tip 4 outwardly
into tight-fitting contact with the inner surface of the nasotracheal tube, (Figures 4 and
5), whereafter the stylet is removed (column 4, line 20 et seq.).
The appellant argues that the Holmgreen body 3, which the examiner has found
to be the “connection adapter,” is not “secured to”2 the distal end of the stylet, as is
required by claim 1. We agree. In the Holmgreen arrangement, the stylet never comes
2The common applicable definition of “secured’ is “made fast.” See, for example, Merriam
Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, 1996, page 1056.
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