Appeal No. 1999-2788
Application No. 08/910,469
tip. In the examiner's view, this pointed tip in Davison is
at an outermost distal end of the blade body because,
"[t]he point (at the end of the edge of the hook
portion 62 shown in figure 8 of Davison et al.) is
at the radially outermost point of the device. In
other words, no other portion of the device extends
radially outward beyond this point. This point is
therefore at an outermost point of the body. The
point is also at a distal end of the body since it
is located at the distal end portion of the body.
The distal end portion of the Davison et al. body is
considered to be the portion of the body which
includes portions 60 and 64. Although the extreme
end of the sharped point is spaced proximally from
the distalmost end point of the device, this is true
for the blade of the invention as well. The extreme
end of the pointed tip 24 of the blade of the
invention is spaced proximally from the distalmost
end point of the device as seen in figure 1 of the
application. Even if the term "pointed tip" in the
claims is considered to include the portion of the
blade that has tapered sides that lead to the
extreme end point (that is, the portion denoted by
reference numeral 24 in figure 1), then even this
pointed tip, including its base, is spaced
proximally a small distance form the distalmost end
point of the device as seen in figure 1 of the
application."
In the alternative, the examiner urges that "it would have
been obvious that the tip described in col. 7, lines 34-36 of
Davison et al. is pointed for the reasons set forth above"
(answer,
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