Appeal No. 1997-2245 Page 14
Application No. 08/402,872
In addition, although not brought to our attention by
either the examiner or appellants, we observe that Golden
discloses, in the Background of the Invention, reference to
U.S. Patent No. 4,809,713 to Grayzel who discloses the use of
a compass to determine the location of a magnet inside of a
patient. Golden states (col. 2, lines 7-29) that in Grayzel,
a cardiac-pacing catheter is held in place against the inner
heart wall of a patient by the attraction between a small
magnet located in the tip of the pacing catheter and a large
magnet located on e.g., sewn into, the patient's chest. The
compass is used to determine the best location for the large
magnet. From the description of Grayzel found in the Golden
patent and our review of the Grayzel reference, we find that
the compass of Grayzel is inherently directionally sensitive
to movement of the small magnet within the patient. However,
even though the compass could be used to detect directional
movement of a magnet within a patient, we find no teaching or
suggestion for using the compass other than for locating the
small magnet which is in a fixed position within the patient's
chest.
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