Appeal No. 98-2788
Application 08/542,180
are all of the claims remaining in the application. Claims 1 through 8 have been canceled.
Appellants’ invention relates to a combination of a male external catheter and applicator
therefor. More particularly, as is apparent from pages 4, 5, 7 and 8 of the specification, it is the sizing
of the annular flap (16) of the male external catheter which appellants view as being the most important
and critical aspect of the invention. Independent claim 9 is representative of the subject matter on
appeal and a copy of that claim may be found in the Appendix to appellants’ brief.
The sole prior art reference of record relied upon by the examiner as evidence of obviousness
of the claimed subject matter is:
Metz 5,336,211 Aug. 9, 1994
Claims 9 through 12 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Metz.
Rather than reiterate the examiner's position on the above-noted rejection and the conflicting
viewpoints advanced by the examiner and appellants regarding the rejection, we refer to pages 4
through 6 of the examiner's answer (Paper No. 10, mailed September 24, 1997) and to pages 8
through 14 of appellants’ brief (Paper No. 9, filed June 25, 1997) for the full exposition thereof.
OPINION
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