Appeal No. 2006-3179 Page 2
Application No. 10/477,069
such as cataracts. Mänsson,1 column 1, line 11-19. Many of the materials utilized to
produce intraocular lens contain reactive groups at their surface which can adversely
interact with biological materials upon lens implantation. Specification, page 1.
Furthermore, silicone oil can adhere to intraocular lens during silicone oil tamponade,
impeding its removal. Id., page 2. To counteract “undesired depositions,” the instant
application provides a method of modifying the lens body surface with a fluoroalkyl
silane of a defined formula. Id., pages 2 and 4.
Discussion
Claim construction
Claims 1-10, all the pending claims in this application, are on appeal. The claims
are rejected under four different grounds of obviousness which are summarized on
pages 2-3 of the Brief. Within each grouping, the claims stand or fall together because
separate reasons for patentability were not presented.
Claim 1 is the only independent claim on appeal. It reads as follows:
1. A method for the passivation of the surface of an intraocular lens,
the surface of which comprises Brönsted sites, characterized in that the
intraocular lens is dipped into a solution of a fluoroalkyl silane of the
general formula
RF - (CH2)n - Si - (O-R)3
wherein the residue R is selected from the group of H, CH3, C2H5, C3H7,
and the fluoroalkyl residue RF is selected from the series CF3(CF2)m, with
m=3 to 11 and n=0 to 4, whereby the Brönsted sites on the surface are
deactivated by formation of Si-O-bonds.
Passivation is not defined in the specification, but as with any term recited in a
claim, we adopt “the broadest reasonable meaning of the words in their ordinary usage
1 Mänsson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,838, issued Jul. 4, 1995 (of record)
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