Appeal 2007-1432
Application 09/141,186
Patent 5,549,673
sizing portion corresponding respectively in size and shape to one of
the implant bodies;
(c) each of the sizing portions having a sloped surface that
forms an obtuse angle with the handle axis, the sloped surface being
positioned to engage the patient’s vocal cord to be medalized;
(d) an inserter instrument that enables a surgeon to engage and
move the selected implant body in the opening in the thyroid cartilage.
18. (Reissue claim) A system of phonosurgery implantation for
enabling a surgeon to insert a prosthesis through an opening formed in
a patient's thyroid cartilage to stabilize a vocal cord therein, the
system comprising:
(a) a series of implant bodies of different sizes;
(b) a series of sizing instruments for enabling a surgeon to
determine the implant body to use, each having proximal and distal
end portions, the proximal end portion having a handle, the distal end
portion having a sizing portion corresponding respectively in size and
shape to one of the implant bodies; and
(c) each of the sizing portions having a sloped surface that
forms an obtuse angle with the handle axis, the sloped surface being
positioned to engage the patient’s vocal cord to be medalized.
4. The Examiner rejected added reissue claims 16-26 under
35 U.S.C. § 251 as “being an improper recapture of claimed subject matter
that was deliberately canceled in the application for the patent upon which
the present reissue is based” (Supp. Answer 4-13) .
5. The Examiner rejected reissue claims 1-3 (original patent
claims 1-3) and added reissue claims 16-26 as being based on a defective
reissue oath under 35 U.S.C. § 251 (Supp. Answer 13).
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