Appeal No. 97-3002
Application 08/529,477
We REVERSE.
The appellants’ invention pertains to a method and apparatus
for maintaining replenishable supplies of surgical sterile fluids
at a preselected temperature. As set forth in the appellants’
ABSTRACT:
Sterile surgical fluid is maintained in one or
more temperature controlled basins provided at the top
of a cabinet. One or more insulated temperature
controlled compartments are formed in the cabinet for
storing supplemental supplies of the surgical fluid at
the temperatures close to the temperatures of the
basins to facilitate replenishing and/or replacing the
fluid in the basins. The storage compartments can be
used for long-term temperature controlled fluid storage
when basin temperature is not being controlled (i.e.,
between surgical procedures.
The references relied on by the examiner are:
Menzel 4,522,041 June 11, 1985
Templeton 4,934,152 June 19, 1990
Gordon 5,363,746 Nov. 15, 1994
Claims 2, 3, 5-9 and 11 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103
as being unpatentable over Templeton in view of Menzel.
Claims 4 and 10 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
being unpatentable over Templeton in view of Menzel and Gordon.
We initially note that in rejecting claims under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103 the examiner bears the initial burden of presenting a prima
facie case of obviousness. In re Rijckaert, 9 F.3d 1531, 1532,
28 USPQ2d 1955, 1956 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d
2
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