Appeal No. 2003-1395
Application No. 09/497,123
26, 2001, Paper No. 8, page 2). The examiner has indicated that
the rejections involving claims 18 and 19 have been withdrawn,
and thus the examiner objects to these claims as being dependent
on a rejected claim but allowable if rewritten in independent
form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any
intervening claims (Answer, page 3, ¶(3) and ¶(6)). Accordingly,
claims 1, 2, 7, 9, 14, 15 and 17 remain as the claims on appeal
(Reply Brief, page 1). We have jurisdiction pursuant to 35
U.S.C. § 134.
According to appellants, the invention is directed to an end
member for use with a bone fusion implant (Brief, page 2).
Representative independent claim 1 is reproduced below:
1. An end member for use with an implant for fusing bone
comprising:
a first portion with a top surface adopted and configured to
engage the bone and having an edge and a first channel extending
from the edge for receiving a surgical instrument;
a second portion configured and dimensioned to be inserted
into a bore of the implant; and
a shoulder joining the first and second portions and sized
to rest on an edge of the implant when the second portion is
inserted in the bore of the implant.
Appellants state that claims 1, 7, 9, 14, 15, 17 and 19
stand or fall together, with claim 2 and claim 18 standing alone
(Brief, page 4). We note that claim 18 is not the subject of any
2
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