Appeal No. 1999-0610 Page 16
Application No. 08/601,186
if the heparin used in the Eury complex were lubricious, the
examiner has not provided any reasoned basis for concluding
that the complex, comprising approximately only 20% by weight
heparin, necessarily maintains this property of
lubriciousness. Finally, the examiner has not provided any
reasoned basis for determining that the final coating, which
comprises the complex dissolved in a polycaprolactone or poly
L-lactic acid film, in a heparin concentration of 5% or 7.5%
by weight, respectively, is necessarily lubricious. From our
viewpoint, the mere presence of approximately 5% or 7.5%
heparin in a polymer coating is not sufficient, without more,
to reasonably support the examiner's determination that the
Eury coating is inherently lubricious, as required by claim
49.
Accordingly, we cannot sustain the examiner's 35 U.S.C.
§ 103 rejection of claim 49, and claims 50 through 60 which
depend therefrom.
REMAND TO THE EXAMINER
The application is remanded to the examiner to consider
whether any additional evidence exists that any of the claimed
coating materials (i.e., polymers or oligomers comprising
Page: Previous 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007