Appeal No. 1998-1789
Application No. 08/473,129
selected location along the length of the vessel, while at the
same time not substantially occluding the vessel such that
stenosis or thrombosis can occur. As manifested in claim 1,
the invention comprises a catheter having tip immobilizing
means on its distal end to “prevent the tip of the catheter
from contacting a wall of the blood vessel without
substantially obstructing fluid flow of blood through the
blood vessel, such that catheter failure due to stenosis or
thrombosis at the catheter distal end is reduced.” Similar
limitations appear in all of the other claims. The examiner’s
position is that the subject matter of all of the others
except claim 26 is anticipated by the catheters shown in
Figures 8-11 of Johnson.
Johnson discloses a catheter within which are positioned
a plurality of light-conducting fibers. The stated objective
of the Johnson invention is to prevent the tips of the light-
conducting fibers from contacting the wall of the vessel in
which they are installed in order to avoid the creation of
artifact by blood flow fluctuations and blood vessel wall
reflectance (column 1, lines 32-59). In the embodiments shown
in Figures 2-7, 10 and 11, Johnson accomplishes this objective
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