Appeal No. 2001-0549
Application No. 08/761,422
considered the portion that is proximal, or in front of, the hub
in figure 2, and thus the hub member [i.e., bite block] is
attached to the proximal end portion of the body portion of the
catheter.”
Initially, we note the examiner’s comment on page 3 of the
answer to the effect that appellant’s hub member as shown in
Figure 7 is located intermediate the ends of the catheter as a
whole. While this may be true, appellant’s claims call for the1
hub member to be attached to the proximal end of the body
portion of the catheter, which body portion corresponds to
element 12 in Figures 7 and 10. Bearing this in mind, the2
examiner’s attempt to arbitrarily reconstruct Gereg in light of
appellant’s claim language is unreasonable and driven by
hindsight, particularly when the claim language in question is
interpreted in a manner consistent with the specification and
1Appellant’s catheter assembly as a whole includes body
portion 12, hub member 16 and extension members 18 and 20.
2See the paragraph spanning pages 9 and 10 of appellant’s
specification, as well as Figures 7 and 10, where the hub
member 12 is clearly described and shown as being secured to
the proximal end of the body portion 12 of the catheter
assembly.
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