Appeal No. 2006-0412 Παγε 7
Application No. 09/999,827
preclude their ability to perform their intended use, and (reply
brief, page 5) that the examiner’s proposed combining of the
references illustrates the use of Applicant’s invention and
claims as a roadmap for forging a rejection based upon hindsight.
It is further argued (id.) that “there is no motivation to
combine the Brun Del Re reference with Ferguson or DeLuca and
even if combined, the resultant combination would be inferior,
less functional, and likely inoperative.”
From our review of Ferguson we find that the reference is
directed to a system and method for monitoring vital signs and
capturing data from a patient (col. 1, lines 14 and 15). The
vital signs include electro-cardiogram (ECG), blood pressure,
etc. (col. 1, lines 21 and 22). A component of the invention is
an adhesive, cordless, disposable sensor band with electrode
patches (col. 4, line 62). The sensor band is designed to be
worn for 24 hours, at which time it may be discarded and replaced
by a new sensor band (col. 5, lines 6-8). As illustrated in
figure 2, “the patient only has to prepare his or her skin, peel
back a protective strip over the hydrogel and hydrocolloid
adhesive layers which are, in turn, placed over the electrodes,
signal processing circuitry 12, and battery and stick the sensor
band 10 to the prepared skin in a position for measurement of the
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