Appeal No. 2002-1492 Page 8
Application No. 09/352,161
own disclosure,2 for a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was
made to have provided Abela's catheter with such a magnetic fragment since such a
magnetic fragment would interfere with Abela's navigation system which senses
magnetic fields generated by the external coils.
For the reasons set forth above, the decision of the examiner to reject claims 1 to
26 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 is reversed.
2 The use of hindsight knowledge derived from the appellants' own disclosure to support an
obviousness rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 103 is impermissible. See, for example, W. L. Gore and Assocs.,
Inc. v. Garlock, Inc., 721 F.2d 1540, 1553, 220 USPQ 303, 312-13 (Fed. Cir. 1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S.
851 (1984).
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