Appeal No. 97-2486
Application No. 08/308,983
Eggers. The instrument would short circuit.
[Brief, page 10.]
The appellants' contentions are not persuasive. In the
embodiment of Fig. 6C, Eggers provides end effectors 118, 119
having non-conductive bodies that are formed of "an
electrically insulating material, e.g., a ceramic material . .
." (column 14, lines 51-53). While Eggers does not
specifically state what process is employed to form the non-
conductive bodies of ceramic material, Eggers does state (as
we have noted above with respect to the rejection of claim
37), that in the embodiment of Fig. 6A, the metallic bodies
may be formed by die casting or injection molding (see column
11, in lines 20-25). This statement by Eggers regarding the
embodiment of Fig. 6A would have fairly suggested to the
artisan to likewise make the ceramic non-conductive bodies in
the embodiment of Fig. 6C by either die casting or injection
molding. In any event, Stasz teaches an electrosurgical
instrument (albeit a scalpel) wherein the non-conductive body
is formed by "injection molding a green ceramic and then
firing the molded part" (column 2, lines 65 and 66). Thus,
Stasz teaches that when forming the non-conductive of body of
an electrosurgical instrument of a ceramic material, an
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