Appeal 2007-2331
Application 10/123,883
Appellant argues that the stent taught by the combination of Alt and
Savin does not have an expanded state (Br. 6). Savin, according to
Appellant, teaches expanding only part of the device using the balloon, and
that “[t]o assert that a device which is partially unexpanded is in an
expanded state is to give the term ‘expanded state’ a meaning repugnant to
the definition of the term supported by the instant application.” (Br. 6.)
Appellant argues that “Savin’s partial inflation method does not disclose a
stent in its expanded state but rather a filter.” (Id. at 7.) Appellant argues
further that a stent as disclosed in the present application at page 2, lines 4-8,
“is a device used to scaffold a vessel wall and to remove obstructions from
within the vessel.” (Id.). A filter as disclosed by Savin, according to
Appellant, is partially inflated to provide a mechanism for filtering a body
cavity (id.). Appellant asserts that “[s]uch an arrangement does not scaffold
and support the vessel in the manner of a stent.” (Id. (emphasis in original).)
As noted by the Examiner, Savin does not just teach filters, but also
teaches methods of using tapered and stepped balloons to deliver stents to
coronary arteries, peripheral arteries and visceral arteries, veins, and to the
biliary tree, the urinary tract, and the gastro-intestinal tract (Savin, col. 6, ll.
30-34) (Answer 5). Thus, Savin teaches using a tapered or stepped balloon
to deliver a stent, and not just a filter as alleged by Appellant.
Moreover, claim 24 reads on a stent that has been partially expanded,
as well as fully expanded, by the tapered balloon. There is nothing in claim
24 that requires the entire stent to be in a fully expanded state. Our mandate
is to give claims their broadest reasonable construction. In re American
Academy of Science Tech Center, 367 F.3d 1359, 1364, 70 USPQ2d 1827,
1830 (Fed. Cir. 2004). “An essential purpose of patent examination is to
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