Appeal No. 2000-0651
Application No. 09/024,732
their tips and ends (column 1, lines 8 through 18). However,
notwithstanding the mentioning of the term “pig tail” as
above, we do not perceive that one having ordinary skill in
the art would have discerned from either the Sachse or the
Carter documents a teaching of a bladder retention coil lying
in a plane extending at a perpendicular angle (to) a
longitudinal axis of a tubular drain body as now claimed,
i.e., a bladder retention coil lying in a plane orthogonal to
the longitudinal axis, consistent with the underlying
disclosure of the present application.
Claim 9 also requires a “unitary tubular stiffening 3
device” sufficiently rigid to render the bladder retention
coil rectilinear and having an open distal end and an
unobstructed internal lumen for permitting urine flow
therethrough as a signal indicating that a distal end portion
has been inserted into a patient’s urinary bladder. Akin to
3The word “unitary” relates to a unit, with a “unit”
being a single quantity or an undivided whole. Webster’s New
Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Springfield,
Massachusetts, 1979. This definition is consistent with the
disclosure in appellant’s application of a single tube
(tubular) stiffener 28.
6
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007