Appeal No. 2001-1939 Page 8
Application No. 09/072,605
discloses, either expressly or under the principles of inherency, each and every element
of the claimed invention. See, for example, In re Paulsen, 30 F.3d 1475, 1480-1481,
31 USPQ2d 1671, 1675 (Fed. Cir. 1994).
Claim 14 is directed to a method of polishing surfaces of a surgical stent
comprising the steps of providing a source of fluid abrasive media, flowing the abrasive
media in an axial direction and maintaining the flow past an inner stent surface for a
length of time “sufficient to abrade the edges of the inner stent surface until said edges
are streamlined in shape.” At this juncture, we should point out that the common
definition of “streamlined” is “contoured to reduce resistance to motion through a fluid
(as air).”4
The Klein patent discloses an apparatus and method for polishing stents by
flowing an abrasive slurry through the stent. It provides a source of fluid abrasive
media and flows it past the stent in an axial direction with the media coming into contact
with the surfaces of the stent. In the course of the disclosed polishing method the
abrasive particles “round edges and corners” (column 4, line 28). As is explained in
column 9, lines 19-65, “[t]he method for polishing the surfaces 28, 29, 32 and deburring
and rounding edges 34, 36 of stent 2" (emphasis added) is accomplished by holding the
stent in a passage in a fixture and causing abrasive material to flow axially past the
inner and outer surfaces of the stent as well as to be extruded through the openings in
4See, for example, Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 1973, page 1151.
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