Appeal No. 2006-0817
Application 10/325,443
formed on the “monomer” modified polymeric surface in order to form any manner of
“lubricious coating.” Thus, the coating must be polymeric and have the property of being
“lubricious” to any extent, however small, in which “lubricious” has its common, ordinary
meaning in the context of the disclosure in the written description in the specification of having
the property of being slippery or smooth.1
The plain language of dependent claim 2 requires that the polymer reacting with the
monomer to form the lubricious coating “is a hydrogel polymer,” wherein the hydrogel polymer
can be polymerized on the surface, such as from quaternary amine acrylate monomers, as
specified in dependent claim 1. The resulting hydrogel quaternary amine acrylate polymer, as
specified in independent claim 18, can have more than 50,000 repeating units, as specified in
dependent claim 12 and independent claim 27.
We agree with appellants that the Michal references “have substantially identical
disclosures, except for the claims” (brief, page 2), and accordingly, we consider only Michal
‘285, applicable to the appealed claims under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b), as indeed, the examiner does
not distinguish between the references. See In re Jones, 958 F.2d 347, 349, 21 USPQ2d 1941,
1942 (Fed. Cir. 1992); In re Kronig, 539 F.2d 1300, 1302-04, 190 USPQ 425, 426-28 (CCPA
1976).
We find that Michal ‘285 would have disclosed to one of ordinary skill in this art a
lubricious, hydrophilic coating composition comprising, among others, a grafting component and
a hydrophilic polymer, but not a binding component (e.g., col. 4, ll. 66-67, col. 5, ll. 9-14 and
48-51, and col. 17, Example 5). The grafting component adheres or grafts to the polymeric
surface of the medical device and crosslinks to the hydrophilic polymer to form the lubricious,
hydrophilic coating (e.g., col. 5, ll. 14-42, col. 11, ll. 16-45 and FIG. 5, and col. 17, Example 5).
The grafting component includes various oligomers and polymers, is multifunctional and can
interact with UV photoinitiators to polymerize and crosslink (e.g., col. 6, ll. 54-64, col. 19, l. 56,
to col. 11, l. 15, col. 11, ll. 16-45 and FIG. 5, and col. 17, Example 5; see answer, page 4). The
lubricious, hydrophilic polymer can be selected from a variety of polymers (e.g., col. 7, ll. 45-53,
1 See generally, The American Heritage Dictionary Of The English Language 1038 (4th ed.,
Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company. 2000).
- 4 -
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007