Appeal No. 97-1029
Application 08/456,166
application as originally filed reasonably conveys to the
artisan that the inventor had possession at that time of the
later claimed subject matter, rather than the presence or
absence of literal support in the specification for the claim
language. In re Kaslow, 707 F.2d 1366, 1375, 217 USPQ 1089,
1096 (Fed. Cir. 1983). In the present case, there is no basis
in the appellants’ originally filed disclosure for the
recitation in claim 26 that the hydrogel impregnated in the
wound packing material “is devoid of water.” To the contrary,
the original disclosure indicates that this hydrogel, even
when dehydrated, contains at least a small degree of water
(see, for example, specification pages 4, 13, 15 and 16).
Thus, the disclosure of the instant application
packing comprising a hydrogel which is devoid of water as is
now recited in claims 26 and 27.
In summary:
a) the decision of the examiner to reject claims 25 and
27 through 30 is affirmed with respect to claim 27 and
reversed with respect to claims 25 and 28 through 30; and
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