Appeal No. 2002-1671 Page 4
Application No. 08/993,985
18 USPQ2d 1089, 1091 (Fed. Cir. 1991) and In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 425, 208
USPQ 871, 881 (CCPA 1981).
In the rejection of claims 1 to 4, 6, 8 to 16, 19 to 21, 36, 37, 39 to 49 and 51 to
67 (answer, pp. 4-5), the examiner (1) set forth the pertinent teachings of Kawai and
Fontaine; (2) ascertained that Kawai lacked a graft; and (3) determined that it would
have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to have utilized Kawai's
bioabsorbable stent with a graft as suggested by Fontaine.
Independent Claim 63
Claim 63 is directed to a stent-graft comprising, inter alia, (1) a tubular annealed
structure formed of a plurality of filaments, each filament comprising bioabsorbable
material; wherein the filaments include a first set of the filaments wound helically about
an axis of the tubular structure and having a first common direction of winding, and a
second set of the filaments wound helically about the axis and having a second
common direction of winding, whereby the filaments of the second set cross the
filaments of the first set at an axially directed angle; and (2) a compliant graft
cooperating with at least a portion of the tubular structure to form a stent-graft adapted
to be disposed in a body lumen.
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