Appeal 2007-2766
Application 09/880,615
6. “The stent can be formed from a sintered cylindrical tube or sintered
metal sheet which can be laser cut or chemical etched into an expandable
stent structure” (Yan, at col. 2, ll. 11-14; at col. 2, ll. 39-46; Answer 4).
7. “A sheet or tube of sintered metal can be cut in the desired shape to form
the metal structural member with a laser, such as a continuous CO2 laser, a
pulsed YAG laser, or an excimer laser, for example, or alternatively, by
chemical etching or stamping” (Yan, at col. 7, ll. 44-49).
8. The stent described by Yan can comprise outer and inner core layers
comprising pores of different diameters, where the core’s pores have a larger
diameter than the pores of the outer layer to control the rate at which drugs
are released into the walls of the vessel (Yan, at col. 2, ll. 20-32; at col. 8, ll.
52-55; see Fig. 12. See also Answer 3).
The Solovay Patent
9. Solovay describes a stent covering which has different porosities along its
length (Answer 5). Typically, tissue ingrowth and re-endothelialization are
desired at the ends of the stent. To encourage ingrowth into this region, the
stent covering “is more porous, and in those regions w[h]ere it is desirable to
inhibit such ingrowth, the stent covering is substantially non-porous”
(Solovay, Abstract; see also at col. 2, ll. 2-9; at col. 3, ll. 35-41; Fig. 6).
10. Ingrowth can also be controlled by pore size and density, using smaller
diameter and/or less dense porosity to inhibit ingrowth, and larger diameter
and higher porosity to encourage it (Solovay, at col. 2, ll. 2-41; at col. 4, ll.
53-67; Fig. 6).
11. Each longitudinally spaced region of different porosity has the same
porosity around its circumference (see Solovay, Fig. 6; Answer 5).
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