Appeal 2007-2766
Application 09/880,615
The manufacturing process recited in independent claims 23 and 32
involve two steps: 1) providing a tube; and 2) cutting a stent from the tube.
In claim 32, the stent is cut into a serpentine pattern. The tube in both
claims 23 and 32 is characterized by having at least two different pores sizes
along the longitudinal axis.
FINDINGS OF FACT
The level of skill in the art
1. Stents are commonly used to treat medical conditions (see Solovay, at
col. 1, ll. 9-12; Yan, at col. 1, ll. 12-20; Richter, at col. 1, ll. 16-23).
2. The manufacture of stents using different designs and different materials
was known and routine in the art prior to the application filing date (see Yan,
at col. 4, ll. 32-40; at col. 9, ll. 15-40; Solovay, at col. 7, ll. 4-23; Richter, at
col. 1, ll. 43-48).
3. Different methods of manufacturing stents were also known and routine
to persons of ordinary skill in the art (see Yan, at col. 2, ll. 38-46; at col. 7,
ll. 45-50; Solovay, at col. 7, ll. 45-47; Richter, at col. 1, ll. 50-54).
The scope and contents of the prior art
The Yan Patent
4. Yan describes a stent having porous cavities which “can be formed by
sintering the stent material from metallic particles, filaments, fibers or other
materials” (Yan, at col. 2, ll. 7-9).
5. Drugs can be loaded into the pores (Yan, at col. 1, ll. 64-66).
3
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