Appeal No. 2006-3224 Page 4
Application No. 10/063,656
[0117]. Following this step, the aggregates can be coalesced “by heating the
aggregates above a glass transition temperature of the polymeric resin” which results in
the formation of the polymeric microspheres. Id., [0024] and [0118]. Thus, as required
by the claim, the aggregating and coalescing steps are used to form the “polymeric
resin into polymeric microspheres.”
The polymeric microspheres are treated in the second step of claim 1 “to attach a
biomedical material to said polymeric microspheres.” According to the specification, the
polymeric microspheres “can be subjected to a suitable treatment, which enables their
use in the desired biomedical application.” Id., [0015]. “To achieve such uses, the
polymeric microspheres of the present invention can be processed to attach suitable
and desirable biological or medical materials to the surfaces of the microspheres.” Id.,
[0096]. Treatments include “surface treatment to alter the chemical and/or physical
properties of the particle, such as hydrophobicity, hydrophilicity, surface charge, and the
like, or to attach or alter functional groups present on the surface of the microspheres.”
Id., [0071]. Giving the claim its broadest reasonable interpretation in view of the
specification (In re Morris, 127 F.3d 1048, 1054, 44 USPQ2d 1023, 1027 (Fed. Cir.
1997)), we construe the phrase “treating said polymeric microspheres to attach a
biomedical functional material” to refer to subjecting the microspheres to a treatment to
enable biomedical materials to later be attached to them. In sum, the claim does not
require the microspheres to be attached to the biomedical functional material.
The claim preamble states that the method is “for biomedical applications.”
Preamble language that merely states the purpose or intended use of an invention is
generally not treated as limiting the scope of the claim. Boehringer Ingelheim
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