Appeal No. 1999-0757
Application No. 08/699,083
the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill
in the art “to have provided the cannula of the Garrett device
with a tapered exterior surface, as taught by Buehler, in order
to have allowed easier set-ups” (answer, page 3).
As to the proposed combination of Garrett and Buehler, the
panel deciding the appeal in grandparent Application 07/639,773,
agreed with the examiner that it would have been obvious in view
of Buehler to provide the blunt-ended cannula disclosed by
Garrett with a tapered distal end region to facilitate the
insertion of the cannula into its associated injection site (see
Paper No. 42, page 9). The question in this appeal, however, is
whether the combined teachings of these references justify the
rejection of the current claims which are amended, more specific
versions of the claims in the first appeal.
Independent claim 17 now recites a cannula insertion member
comprising, inter alia, a tube having (1) a central bore that
extends throughout the entire length of the tube and terminates
at an aperture that has substantially the same cross-sectional
circumference as at least portions of the central bore, and (2) a
distal end region defining the aperture in the distal end of the
distal end region and including a tapered exterior surface.
Garrett’s blunt-ended syringe or cannula has such a central bore
and aperture, but no tapered exterior surface on its distal end
region. Although Buehler’s dispensing member constitutes a
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