Appeal No. 1998-2183
Application No. 08/529,195
1 2
appellants' specification and claims, the applied teachings,
the affidavit of Dr. Michael W. Spallek and technical articles
(Exhibit B), the affidavit of Dr. Ewald Spingler, and the 3
1We are informed by the “Description of the Prior Art”
section of appellants' specification (pages 1 through 4) that,
prior to the present invention, prefilled, sterile, disposable
syringes for medicinal purposes were known. According to
appellants (specification, page 2), in all known disposable
syringes for injections of < 5 ml, the barrel of the syringe
at the very least is made of glass. It is also pointed out
(specification, page 3) that many types of glass are not
suitable for gamma ray sterilization which is indicated to be
a very simple, economical and harmless sterilization
procedure. The specification (page 3) additionally indicates
that prefilled, disposable plastic syringes with total fill
volumes of at least 50 ml are known. As stated by appellants
(specification, page 4), known prefilled plastic syringes
could not be stored for long periods of time due to loss of
preparation components due to diffusion. The specification
(page 4) also notes that known plastic syringes are
constructed from a translucent plastic, permitting only
limited visual inspection of the syringe contents.
2In our evaluation of the applied teachings, we have
considered all of the disclosure of each teaching for what it
would have fairly taught one of ordinary skill in the art.
See In re Boe, 355 F.2d 961, 965, 148 USPQ 507, 510 (CCPA
1966). Additionally, this panel of the Board has taken into
account not only the specific teachings, but also the
inferences which one skilled in the art would reasonably have
been expected to draw from the disclosure. See In re Preda,
401 F.2d 825, 826, 159 USPQ 342, 344 (CCPA 1968).
3While labeled affidavits, the last paragraph of each of
the Spallek and Spingler documents respectively reveals that
they are declarations.
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