Appeal No. 2002-2187
Application 09/149,359
17 and 18 of the drawings.2 Page 13 in the original
specification indicates that resiliently deflectable device
bodies of the sort set forth in claims 17 through 19, i.e. nasal
packings 224, “are compressed and inserted into thin-walled,
sleeve-like, flexible gelatin retainers 226,” and that “[t]he
packing 224 - retainer 226 combination is flexible and of small
enough cross sectional area, for example, to be inserted easily
through nostril 220 into nasal cavity 222 without causing
significant trauma.” Original Figure 18 depicts the insertion
step.
The written description requirement of 35 U.S.C. § 112,
first paragraph, requires the disclosure of the application as
originally filed to reasonably convey to the artisan that the
inventors had possession at that time of the later claimed
subject matter. In re Kaslow, 707 F.2d 1366, 1375, 217 USPQ
1089, 1096 (Fed. Cir. 1983). The content of the drawings may be
considered in determining compliance with the written description
requirement. Id. The second paragraph of 35 U.S.C. § 112
2 The appellants’ assertion on page 11 in the main brief
that these claims also relate to the voice prosthesis and septal
button insertion methods described and illustrated elsewhere in
the disclosure is not well taken. The limitations in these
claims, viewed in light of the underlying disclosure, simply do
not read on these other embodiments (in accord is the summary of
the invention set forth on pages 3 through 7 in the main brief).
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