Appeal No. 2006-2826 Page 4
Application No. 09/993,907
modified by varying the degree of cross-linking.” In other words, the ability of the
hydrogel-coated device to be “seen” by MRI is enabled by detection of the detectable
species associated with the hydrogel. According to the specification, this works
because the change in magnetic field may change the relaxation time of the detectable
species, which is measurable by MRI. Id., ¶¶ 30, 87. As a consequence, the device is
visualized (“render … visible”) in the resulting MRI image.
In MRI, the “detectable species” are typically protons that “behave like tiny
magnets” in the magnetic field produced during MRI. Id., ¶ 3. The protons can be
provided by water, hydroxylated molecules, or other chemical groups protons
“associated with said hydrogel polymer.” Id., ¶ 31, 32. The phrase “associated with” is
defined in the specification to mean the chemical bonding which incorporates the
detectable species in the hydrogel polymer. Id., ¶ 27.
There is no quantity of cross-linking recited in the claims, nor which is described
in the specification. Moreover, claim 1 does not require the cross-linked hydrogel to
have a specific structure. Consequently, we construe the phrase “adapted by cross-
linking said hydrogel polymer to a degree sufficient to render said medical device
visible” to be a functional limitation, i.e., any cross-linked structure can meet the claimed
limitation as long as it possesses the claimed “visibility” function.
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