Appeal No. 2006-3179 Page 9
Application No. 10/477,069
intraocular lenses. Specification, page 2, lines 1-3. Thus, the skilled worker, who would
have been aware of this problem, would have seen Ogawa’s teaching as a solution to it
(i.e., an oil repellant surface), providing the incentive to combine this reference with
Gupta.
Appellants argue that “there is no mention [in Ogawa] of medical device
applications.” Brief, page 5, ¶ 4. We do not agree. Ogawa discloses surgical knives
and needles (including acupuncture, syringe, and surgical needles), which are medical
devices. Id., column 7, lines 60-64. Culture dishes are also disclosed (column 8, line
7), which would be in contact with biological materials (e.g., cells and tissue culture
media), and therefore relevant to the claimed intraocular lens which are also placed in a
biological milieu. Appellants in their patent application state that “[t]he protection of
intraocular lenses against the sticking of substances originating from biological liquids,
as well as medical adjuvants has been a demand in ophthalmology for some time.”
Specification, page 1. Having stated the problem in this way, Ogawa’s teaching of
surface coated culture dishes would be recognized as addressing the same need
identified by Appellants, i.e., to create a surface repellant to biological materials. This
also provides adequate motivation to have combined Ogawa with Gupta. In fact, the
efficacy of the coating was tested in Appellants’ application by “cell culture experiments”
in which the number of cells adhering to coated and uncoated lens was measured.
Id., pages 8-9.
Appellants contend that “Gupta teaches the use of an at least two-component
solution comprising a mixture of an amino functional silane reagent and a perfluoralkyl
carboxylic acid (see fig, 4 of Gupta) … Two of … [the] possible reaction products … do
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