Appeal No. 96-2631
Application No. 08/177,616
corresponding to a desired predetermined depth of penetration by
the safety penetrating instrument into the tissue.
The American Hertigage Dictionary, Second College Edition
(1982), defines "upon" as "On" and defines "when" as "1. At the2
time that; 2. As soon as."
Our review of the specification (e.g., pp. 4, 5, 6, 17-18,
26-27, 32-33), as originally filed, and the dictionary
definitions lead us to conclude that one of ordinary skill in the
art would understand the terminology "upon," "when" and "as soon
as" as recited in claim 1, 6, 14 or 22 to mean "at essentially
the same time."
With regard to the question of obviousness, we find no
teaching in Allen that would have suggested to one of ordinary
skill in the art at the time of the appellant's invention that
Allen's disclosed safety trocar instrument be modified in such a
manner as to meet the limitations of independent claims 1, 6, 14
and 22. In that regard, we see no teaching in Allen that would
2 The American Hertigage Dictionary, Second College Edition
(1982), provides that one definition of "on" is "Used to
indicate: Occurrence at a given time."
7
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007