Appeal No. 97-0082
Application No. 07/993,718
subject matter set forth in independent claim 1 with the
exception of the interconnection being formed of a material less
flexible than the neck engaging portion. Bales discloses a neck
flange for positioning a tracheostomy tube 12 comprising a neck
engaging portion 22 and an interconnection 19 having a ring
shaped body with an opening for surrounding the tracheostomy
tube, wherein both the neck engaging portion 22 and the
interconnection 19 are molded from different polymers, namely,
polycarbonate for the interconnection and polyurethane for the
neck engaging portion. Bales states that the purpose of7
utilizing two different materials is to prevent fracturing of the
neck engaging portion (i.e., flange member 22; see column 4,
lines 14-16). This stated advantage would have provided more
than ample motivation to the artisan to combine the teachings of
Ranford and Bales in the manner proposed by the examiner. That
is, one of ordinary skill in this art would have found it obvious
to modify the neck flange of Ranford by making the neck engaging
portion 30 of polyurethane and the interconnection 29 of
polycarbonate in order to achieve Bales’ expressly stated
7The appellants likewise use these very same materials,
i.e., polycarbonate for the interconnection and polyurethane for
the neck engaging portion (see specification, page 5, line 32,
and page 6, line 24).
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