Appeal No. 2006-1526
Application No. 09/861,815
BACKGROUND
The appellants’ invention relates to flexible instruments, and medical
instruments in particular, having three-dimensional positioning systems including
sensors at the distal and proximal ends and at an intermediate portion of the
instrument. A copy of the claims under appeal is set forth in the appendix to the
appellants’ brief.
The examiner relies upon the following as evidence of unpatentability:
Shlomo US 6,272,371 B1 Aug. 7, 2001 (Feb. 22, 1999)
Schulz WO 00/39576 Jul. 6, 2000
The rejection of claims 30, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39-43, 46, 47, 49, 50, 52 and
54 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Shlomo in view of Schulz
is before us for review in this appeal.
Rather than reiterate in their entirety the conflicting viewpoints advanced by
the examiner and the appellants regarding this appeal, we make reference to the
examiner's answer (mailed July 21, 2005) for the examiner's complete reasoning in
support of the rejection and to the appellants’ brief (filed April 28, 2005) and reply
brief (filed September 23, 2005) for the appellants’ arguments thereagainst.
OPINION
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration
to the appellants’ specification and claims, to the applied prior art, and to the
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