Appeal No. 95-4491
Application No. 07/864,210
Specification, p. 2 (“This invention relates to compositions
for protecting both human and animal endothelial and
epithelial cells which are subject to exposure to trauma”).
Therefore, one having ordinary skill in the art would have
expected a mixture of sodium hyaluronate and chondroitin
sulfate to protect corneal tissue from injury caused by
surgery or other trauma. See In re O’Farrell, 853 F.2d 894,
904, 7 USPQ2d 1673, 1681 (Fed. Cir. 1988) (“[f]or obviousness
under § 103, all that is required is a reasonable expectation
of success”).
Nevertheless, appellants rely on three declarations
(Chang Declarations of July 27, 1984, and August 5, 1985, and
Hasskarl Declaration of July 29, 1988) to rebut the prima
facie case of obviousness. The Chang Declaration of July 27,
1984, is said to demonstrate that the mixture encompassed by
the claims on appeal exhibits an unusually high stability at
room temperature (Brief, p. 19).
Viscosity and osmolality for a composition of chondroitin
sulfate/sodium hyaluronate were said to have been measured
after storage at 4EC and 23EC for up to 183 days. The data at
room temperature is said to have been plotted in Figures 1 and
10
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