Appeal No. 97-0939
Application 08/127,319
This is a decision on an appeal from the final rejection of claims 1-7 and 20-29, all the claims
currently pending in the application. Two amendments have been filed subsequent to the final rejection.
The first, submitted on July 17, 1995 (designated amendment “E” in the file) has been entered. The
second, submitted July 31, 1997 (designated amendment “F” in the file) has been refused entry by the
examiner.
Appellant’s invention pertains to a method for use in laparoscopic hernia repair, and includes
inter alia the steps of inserting a balloon between the abdominal muscles and the parietal peritoneum,
and inflating the balloon to shift connective tissue between the abdominal muscles and the parietal
peritoneum to form a space for performing the laparoscopic hernia repair operation on the herniated
tissues. Independent claim 1, a copy of which is found in the appendix to appellant’s second substitute
brief (hereinafter, brief) filed March 19, 1996, is illustrative of the appealed subject matter.
The references of record relied upon by the examiner in support of rejections under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103 and 35 U.S.C. § 102(e) are:
Bonutti 5,163,949 Nov. 17, 1992
(Filing date Jul. 17, 1991)
Pena 5,178,133 Jan. 12, 1993
(Filing date Mar. 26, 1991)
Moll et al (Moll) 5,309,896 May 10, 1994
(Filing date Nov. 19, 1991)
Kieturakis et al (Kieturakis) 5,496,345 Mar. 5, 1996
(Effective filing date June 2, 1992)
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007