Appeal No. 2006-0647
Application No. 10/069,561
instantly claimed . . . partially carboxymethylated cellulose having
fibrinogen, thrombin, and coagulation factor XIII bonded onto it . . . , [and]
it stands to reason that such cellulose material would exhibit the same
attributes as claimed by the appellant, such as solubility and rapid
dissolution” (Answer 9).
We agree with Appellants that the cited references, viewed without
the benefit of hindsight, would not have suggested the claimed soluble
hemostatic fiber, or the claimed method of making it, to a person of ordinary
skill in the art. As discussed above, the Examiner may not “resort to . . .
unfounded assumptions or hindsight reconstruction to supply deficiencies in
[the] factual basis” of the rejection (Warner, 379 F.2d at 1017, 154 USPQ at
178).
We conclude that the examiner has not established a prima facie case
of obviousness on this record, and we are constrained to reverse the rejection
of claims 34, 36-55, 57-60, and 62-74 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
unpatentable over Soe, Colombo, Edwardson, and Sugitachi.
OTHER ISSUES
As discussed above, none of the references cited by the Examiner
describe soluble carboxymethyl cellulose fibers, with or without fibrinogen,
thrombin, and factor XIII. According to the present specification, however,
Japanese Patent Application No. Hei11-58412 describes “a soluble trauma-
healing hemostatic cellulose fiber whose hydroxyl groups in the glucose
units . . . of the natural or regenerated cellulose fibers have been partially
carboxymethylated so that its carboxymethyl substitution level . . . becomes
0.5 - under 1.0%” (Specification 2: 32 to 3: 2). It is not clear from the
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