Appeal No. 97-2550
Application 08/467,698
and 28 appears in the appendix to the appellants' brief (Paper
No. 15).
The references relied upon by the examiner as evidence of
obviousness are:
Bonutti 5,197,971 Mar. 30, 1993
(filed Dec. 18, 1990)
Lee et al. (Lee) 5,226,899 Jul. 13, 1993
(filed Aug. 15, 1991)
Claims 12, 13, 15, 27 and 28 stand rejected under 35
U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Bonutti in view of
Lee.
Reference is made to the appellants' brief (Paper No. 15)
and to the examiner's answer (Paper No. 16) for the respective
positions of the appellants and the examiner with regard to
the merits of this rejection.
Bonutti, the examiner's primary reference, pertains to
retractors "for use in selectively and specifically moving
sub-surface tissue in arthroscopic surgery[,] endoscopic
surgery and fiber optic surgery" (column 1, lines 17 through
19). In the embodiment relied upon by the examiner (see
Figures 9 and 10),
3
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