Appeal No. 2000-1906
Application No. 09/063,338
These disclosures, however, fall short of showing the prima facie
obviousness of the method of claim 1. The method defined in claim 1 requires
first making a platelet-rich plasma fraction, then treating a portion of it to activate
clotting factors, and using the activated portion as a source of thrombin. The
cited references would not have suggested this series of process steps to those
of ordinary skill in the art. Specifically, the references do not suggest using the
same blood fraction as a source of both fibrinogen and thrombin in fibrin glue. At
best, the references would have suggested using one fraction of a blood sample
as a source of fibrinogen and another fraction of the same sample as a source of
thrombin. For example, based on Hirsh, those skilled in the art may have found it
obvious to use Anta navich’s platelet-rich plasma concentrate as a source of
fibrinogen and to use red and white blood cells as a source of thrombin.3 That,
however, is not the method of the instant claims.
The examiner argues that it “would have been merely a matter of saving
time and resources to withdraw the blood and reduce it all to platelet rich plasma
prior to separation for formation of the two components of the adhesive.”
Examiner’s Answer, page 8. This argument is questionable on its face, since the
examiner does not explain how reducing an entire blood sample to platelet rich
plasma would “sav[e] time and resources.” Even leaving that aside, however, the
examiner’s argument does not save the rejection because it presumes that those
skilled in the art would have found it obvious to obtain both components of the
3 Antanavich’s platelet -rich plasma is made by removing red and white blood cells from whole
blood. See column 12, lines 25-27 (“[P]latelet-rich plasma is separated from cells when
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