Appeal No. 2006-3224 Page 2
Application No. 10/063,656
microspheres are known, including by dispersion polymerization, potentiometric
dispersion, electrostatically controlled extrusion, and emulsification and evaporation.
Id., [0004]-[0005]. According to the application, these methods have shortcomings that
curtail their utility, “particularly when the methods are applied to the continuous
production of uniformly sized microspheres, including biocompatible, biodegradable,
drug-loaded microspheres.” Id., [0006]. The application provides an emulsification/
aggregation process for producing polymeric microspheres that “exhibit a very narrow
particle or geometric size distribution, and have particle sizes making them particularly
useful for biomedical applications.” Id., [0015].
Discussion
Claim construction
Claims 1 and 3-30, which are all the pending claims, are on appeal. Three prior
art rejections have been presented for appeal. Brief, page 7. We focus our attention on
claim 1, the only independent claim in this appeal.
1. A method of forming polymeric microspheres for biomedical applications,
comprising:
forming polymeric microspheres by an emulsion/aggregation process from
a precursor monomer species; and
treating said polymeric microspheres to attach a biomedical functional
material to said polymeric microspheres,
wherein said polymeric microspheres have an average particle diameter of
from about 1 to about 15 microns with a narrow particle geometric size
distribution of less than about 1.25, and
wherein said emulsion/aggregation process comprises forming a
polymeric resin from said precursor monomer species and aggregating and
coalescing said polymeric resin into polymeric microspheres.
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