Appeal No. 1999-0610 Page 17
Application No. 08/601,186
monomers of polysaccharides) would have been recognized by one
of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the appellants'
invention as being biocompatible and lubricious and,
accordingly, to determine whether the subject matter of any of
claims 49 through 60 would have been obvious over Castillo et
al. in view of references such as Sahatjian, Whitbourne and
the Lentz patents, which disclose the use of lubricious
coatings on catheters, either alone or in further view of such
evidence.
From our viewpoint, the coating materials disclosed by
appellants are known materials; the examiner should determine
if any of them may further have been recognized by one of
ordinary skill in the art at the time appellants' invention
was made as being lubricious. In view of the teachings of
references such as Sahatjian, Whitbourne and the Lentz patents
to provide lubricious coatings on catheters, the examiner
should assess whether it would have been obvious to have
coated the Castillo catheter with other known coating
materials recognized in the prior art at the time of the
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