Appeal No. 95-4669
Application 08/044,674
to inhibit or reduce bacterial growth during its use in a living body. Claim 1 is
illustrative and reads as follows:
1. An anti-infective medical article comprising a hydrophilic polymer having
an insoluble silver salt bulk distributed therein, said polymer having a water absorption
of 5% or more by weight.
The references of record relied upon by the examiner as evidence of
obviousness are:
Pratt et al. (Pratt) 4,849,223 Jul. 18, 1989
Laurin et al. (Laurin) PCT/US83/01404 Sep. 15, 1983
Allan S. Hoffman, Synthetic Polymeric Biomaterials, in Polymeric Materials and Artificial
Organs, 13-29 (Charles G. Gebelein, ed., 1983).
The claims on appeal stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as follows:
(a) claims 1-5 as being unpatentable over Laurin in view of Hoffman; and
(b) claim 6 as being unpatentable over Laurin in view of Hoffman and further in
view of Pratt.
Reference is made to appellant’s brief (Paper No. 13) and to the examiner’s
answer (Paper No. 14) for the respective positions of appellant and the examiner with
regard to the merits of these rejections.
Laurin, the examiner’s primary reference, pertains to “compositions useful in
making medical devices and useful in providing antimicrobial coatings on medical
devices” (page 1). As explained on page 3, Laurin’s coating
is prepared by mixing a suitable resin and a compound of a physiological,
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