Appeal No. 1999-2800
Application No. 08/761,659
treatment disclosed by Samson (at col. 11, lines 43 to 53) is
a teaching of "heat treating to impart the desired memory
shape and retain the super-elastic qualities" (answer, page
6).
"To anticipate a claim, a prior art reference must
disclose every limitation of the claimed invention, either
explicitly or inherently." In re Schreiber, 128 F.3d 1473,
1477, 44 USPQ2d 1429, 1431 (Fed. Cir. 1997). In the present
case, claim 1 calls for, inter alia, a catheter section with a
tubular forming member having a first form and a second form,
whereupon the tubular forming member will self-form to the
second form upon heating. We find no disclosure in Samson of
such a catheter. While one embodiment of appellants' tubular
forming member appears to be essentially the same as Samson's
member 206, i.e., a braid made of nitinol, Samson does not
disclose that the catheter is so made that the braid 206 would
assume a different form if the polymeric covering were heated.
The examiner's statement, supra, that superelastic alloys are
known in the art for use in steerable catheters because they
maintain a different form when heated is not considered
relevant to the use of a heat softenable polymeric covering,
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