Appeal No. 1999-2777
Application No. 08/985,835
claim 9, includes a spongy covering attached to the funnel
shaped receiving end that is "shaped so as to conform to the
area immediately surrounding the urethra," which structure is
not taught or suggested in Block. Thus, the examiner's
rejection of dependent claims 8, 11 and 16 under 35 U.S.C. §
103 based on Block will also not be sustained.
The last of the examiner's rejections for our review is
that of claims 6, 9, 10, 12 and 14 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
being unpatentable over Haq in view of Block. In this
instance, it is the examiner's view that it would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to replace the
urine receiving member (22) of Haq with the urine collection
device of Block so that better sealing of the device against
the body of the user could be obtained. Even if such a
modification of the portable urinal of Haq were to be made,
for the reasons already expressed above the resulting portable
urinal would not render obvious appellant's claimed external
catheter for attachment to the urethra as defined in claims 5,
6, 9, 10, 13 and 14 on appeal, or render obvious appellant's
method claim 12 which utilizes the external catheter of claim
11
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