Appeal No. 1998-1789
Application No. 08/473,129
Johnson devices, as we explained above, and therefore the
rejection of claim 9 as being anticipated by Johnson cannot be
sustained. It then follows that the rejection of claims 10,
16, 30 and 31, all of which are dependent from claim 9, also
will not be sustained. Johnson also does not teach the
features of the wall contact members that are recited in claim
31.
Independent claim 20 sets forth a method of inserting a
catheter which includes the steps of placing in a blood vessel
a sheath insertion tube assembly that has a catheter inside
and is provided with handles at its proximal end, maneuvering
the assembly into selected position within the vessel, and
withdrawing the sheath from the catheter while maintaining the
catheter at a fixed position within the vessel. While Johnson
mentions in passing that the catheter can be inserted by means
of a sheath or needle (column 4, line 33), no information is
provided regarding the structure of the sheath or the method
in which it is used. In addition, claim 20 requires that
there be a tip retainer assembly that contacts the wall of the
vessel with a spring biased force that maintains the catheter
tip anchored at a preselected location and held a selected
9
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