Appeal No. 2002-1121 Page 6
Application No. 09/171,169
sclera venus, or the canal of Sclemm, is not part and is unrelated to the
paranasal sinuses.
The examiner responds by arguing that “the most common malfunction of
the lacrimal drainage system, the system that promotes tears or stimulates tear
production, is nasolacrial duct obstruction,” citing page 3 of the Specification.
Examiner’s Answer, page 6. According to the examiner, that recognition “is key”
for establishing why one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to
use the nucleoside phosphates taught by Jacobus for the treatment of sinusits for
the stimulation of tear and mucin production in eyes.
It appears as if the examiner has misapprehended the claimed invention.
The invention is drawn to a method of stimulating tear secretion and mucin
production in the eye—not a method of increasing drainage from the eye through
the removal of an obstruction of the nasolacrimal duct. The Specification at page
3 states that the lacrimal system has two components—a secretory part, which
produces tears, and an excretory part, which drains into the nose. Although the
specification acknowledges that the “most common malfunction of the lacrimal
drainage system is nasolacrimal duct obstruction, which results in the stasis of
tears in the lacrimal sac,” and also teaches that the compounds of the claimed
method may also be used to enhance the drainage of the lacrimal system, that is
presented as an alternate embodiment to the method of stimulating tear
secretion. See, e.g.. Specification, page 6.
As explained by appellants, however, it is the surface of the eye, or the
conjunctiva, which stimulates tear and mucin production, see Reply Brief,
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