Appeal No. 97-0111
Application 08/139,251
The examiner's reference to column 6, lines 50-56, of
McGregor is of no avail, since this portion of McGregor merely
indicates that the needle therein may be first shaped into its
curved configuration and then subjected to the laser hardening
treatment that constitutes the improvement in that patent. The
reference says nothing about cold-working of the suture needle
after bending, and, considered in its entirety, would appear to
teach or suggest that the needle be mechanically deformed to
produce the desired needle shape prior to any bending operation.
In our opinion, the present combination is based entirely on
impermissible hindsight derived from appellants' own teachings
and not from the prior art references themselves as the teachings
thereof would have been understood by one of ordinary skill in
the art at the time of appellants' invention.
Lacking any reasonable teachings in the prior art
itself which would appear to have fairly suggested the claimed
subject matter as a whole to a person of ordinary skill in the
art, or any viable line of reasoning as to why such artisan would
have otherwise found the claimed subject matter to have been
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