Appeal No. 97-0082
Application No. 07/993,718
examiner under the provisions of 37 CFR § 1.142(b) as being
directed to a nonelected invention. We affirm-in-part and,
pursuant to our authority under the provisions of 37 CFR
§ 1.196(b), enter a new rejection of claims 6, 7 and 23.
The appellants’ invention pertains to (1) a neck flange, (2)
the combination of a tracheostomy tube and neck flange, and (3) a
method of using the tracheostomy tube in conjunction with the
neck flange. Independent claims 1, 18 and 19 are further
illustrative of the appealed subject matter and copies thereof,
as they appear in the appendix to the appellants’ brief, are
appended to this decision.3
The references relied on by the examiner are:
Randford et al. 4,235,229 Nov. 25, 1980
Kalt 5,000,741 Mar. 19, 1991
Bales 5,054,482 Oct. 8, 1991
The answer states that the following rejections are
applicable in the claims on appeal.4
3The copy of claim 1 appearing in the appellants’ brief is
incorrect in that (as amended subsequent to final rejection) in
the penultimate line “interconnection of a material” should be
--interconnection formed of a material--.
4The rejections based on prior art were set forth as new
grounds of rejection in the answer. In view of the lack of
mention of the rejection of claims 1-4 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b)
as being anticipated by Ranford and claims 5-15 and 18-23 under
(continued...)
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