Appeal No. 2000-0827
Application 08/466,104
foaming and aerosolating occurs. The population of
microbubbles is thereby greatly increased and the
microbubbles are encapsulated with denatured protein to
obtain a dispersion of highly stable microspheres.
EPO Application at 3, ll. 17-27. The resulting contrast agents
can be stored at room temperature for four to eight weeks or
longer. Id. at 3, ll. 10-11.
Returning to the question of how many suitable "existing
techniques" are disclosed in Appellant's specification, although
the examiner puts the number at "at least eleven" (Answer at 7,
ll. 1-4), he specifically identifies only three, one of which is
the human protein technique described in the above-quoted EPO
paragraph and another is "free gas microbubbles in a viscous
solution (sorbitol)" (id. at 7, ll. 4-11), which as noted above
is the stabilizing technique employed in a preferred embodiment
and in Examples 1 and 5. The third alleged approach is "free gas
microbubbles in saline" (id. at 7, l. 5).
Appellant contends that the examiner's figure of "at least
eleven" is too high and must include techniques which are not
capable of being used to form the microbubbles in Appellant's
contrast agents, such as the disclosed use of solid IDE particles
(Specification at 14, ll. 16-35) and the use of liquid emulsions
containing perfluorooctyl bromide ( id. at 15, ll. 24-33).
According to Appellant, "there are at most a half-dozen or so
techniques mentioned in the specification which employ
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