Appeal No. 2003-1502 Page 7
Application No. 09/365,860
The Section 103 Rejection Based Upon Inoue ‘671
This is an alternative to the rejection of claim 52 under Section 102. The
examiner here poses the same reasoning regarding the “windings” as was presented
with regard to the Section 103 rejection of claim 1 et al. over Inoue ‘179, that is, it would
have been obvious to modify Inoue ‘671 by replacing the disclosed wire elements with
“windings.” For the reasons expressed above in the discussion of the cited rejection of
claim 1, we also will not sustain this rejection of claim 52.
The Section 102 Rejection Based Upon Kwan-Gett
Claims 1 and 2 stand rejected as being anticipated by Kwan-Gett. The examiner
has taken the position that the “windings of wire” recited in claim 1 read on Kwan-Gett’s
circular stents 18 and 20, which “preferably comprise lengths of thin, flat spring material
. . . that are concentrically wound into torsion springs, similar to a watch or clock spring”
(column 5, lines 20-24). We do not agree that the Kwan-Gett lengths of flat spring
material fall within the definition of “wire,”4 and we will not sustain this rejection of claims
1 and 2.
4The common applicable definition of “wire “ is metal in the form of a flexible thread or slender
rod. Webster’s new Collegiate Dictionary, 1973, page 1345.
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