Appeal No. 2000-0182 Page 4
Application No. 08/831,327
the references to arrive at the claimed invention. See In re
Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 1074, 5 USPQ2d 1596, 1598 (Fed. Cir. 1988)
and In re Lintner, 458 F.2d 1013, 1016, 173 USPQ 560, 562 (CCPA
1972).
Claim 1, the sole independent claim on appeal reads as
follows:
A grasping forceps for an endoscope comprising:
a flexible insertion section;
an operating wire passing through said insertion
section and adapted to be advanced and retreated in
accordance with an operation of an operating section
connected to a hand side end of the operating wire; and
an elastic grasping section arranged in the leading end
portion of said operating wire and composed of at least four
elastic grasping members different in length having a habit
of flexing such that leading end grasping portions formed at
the leading ends of said elastic grasping members spread
outward from a center axis of said insertion section;
wherein said leading end grasping portions formed at the
leading ends of said at least four elastic grasping members
different in length are spread in a spiral arrangement at
the time of spreading of said elastic grasping section so
that said leading end grasping portions are arranged at
different distances from the center axis of the insertion
section, the distances of said leading end grasping portions
from the center axis of the insertion section increasing
substantially monotonically.
In the sole rejection before us in this appeal, the examiner
determined (answer, pp. 3-4) that the leading end grasping
portions 11a, 12a and 13a of the Admitted Prior Art are spread in
a spiral arrangement and are arranged at different distances from
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