Appeal No. 2003-1725
Application No. 09/357,645 Page 21
to bend the occluding member as taught by Payne. The component
of the applied bending force that is parallel to a longitudinal
axis of the collapsible tube need not be the portion of the
applied force that bends the tube based on that claim language.
We note that appellants have stated that claims 22 and 23
stand or fall together and we select claim 22 as the
representative claim. See page 5 of the substitute appeal brief,
which was incorporated by reference into the supplemental appeal
brief at page 5 thereof. Consequently, we affirm the examiner’s
§ 103(a) rejection of representative claim 22 and claim 23 for
the reasons stated above.
Claims 24, 26 and 27
Appellants have stated that claims 24, 26 and 27 stand or
fall together for purposes of our consideration of the examiner’s
§ 103(a) rejection and we select claim 24 as the representative
claim as to this grouping of claims. See page 5 of the
substitute appeal brief, which was incorporated by reference into
the supplemental appeal brief at page 5 thereof. All of claims
24, 26 and 27 require an occluder comprising “one occluding
member, and a force actuator constructed and positioned to bend
the occluding member” (claim 24).
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