This class provides for artificial substitutes or parts for a human body particularly manufactured or adapted to replace or assist a missing or defective natural body member or part thereof for functional or cosmetic reasons. This class also provides for elements or accessories for substitutes or parts of this class unless such elements or accessories are of such general utility as to be provided for in some other class. This class also provides for devices and mechanisms designed to operate or control artificial substitutes or parts for a human body. Finally, this class provides for methods of operating an artificial heart.
(1) Note. For the purposes of this class, the expression "Prosthesis" and "Artificial body member" may include a natural other than human animal body part which has been treated or modified to produce a different type of
replacement body part. For example, a graft usable for arteries, organs or skin which is made from animal intestines or umbilical cords will be found in this class. Such prosthesis involving the use of natural body parts proper for this class are to be distinguished from transplants proper for Class 128. That class provides for organ or tissues taken from a human body for grafting into another area of the same body or into another human body.
LINES WITH OTHER CLASSES
With regard to Class 128, Surgery, the subject matter found in Class 623 is intended to physically replace (completely or partially) a missing or defective natural body member or part thereof while Class 128 provides for subject matter which may control or assist a body part or function but which is not used as a physical replacement or partial replacement for any normally existing body part. Class 623, for example, provides for sphincter type apparatus which is completely or partially substituted for an existing sphincter type muscle while Class 128 provides for sphincter type apparatus which is used in addition to an existing sphincter type muscle or in a location where no such muscle normally exists.
REFERENCES TO OTHER CLASSES
SEE OR SEARCH CLASS
2, Apparel, appropriate subclasses for pads to be worn under the clothing.
119, Animal Husbandry, 712+, for a harness for controlling or handling an animal, subclasses 850+ for a protective shield or apparel, and subclasses 856+ for a body- or appendage-encircling collar or band.
128, Surgery, appropriate subclasses, for apparatus which controls or assists a body part or function but which does not physically replace or partially replace any normally existing body part. See Lines With Other Classes, above.
132, Toilet,
53, and 54 for wigs and other hair structures not anchored in the scalp.
135, Tent, Canopy, Umbrella, or Cane,
65+, for staffs, crutches, stilts, etc. used as aids to walking but not adapted to be secured to the limbs.
181, Acoustics,
129+, for an artificial ear drum or aid to hearing.
223, Apparel Apparatus, appropriate subclasses, especially 60, 66+ and 120 for artificial body members used for display or in operations on apparel.
351, Optics: Eye Examining, Vision Testing and Correcting,
41+, for spectacles and eyeglasses as aids to vision. 427, Coating Processes,
2.1+, for significant coating or impregnating processes which involve medical or dental purpose products, parts, intermediates, or subcombinations thereof, especially subclasses 2.24+ coating (or impregnating) processes for implantable permanent prosthesis.
428, Stock Material and Miscellaneous Articles, appropriate subclasses for a web, sheet or block of stock material product of either single or plural layers, and especially
543, for miscellaneous articles or blanks not elsewhere provided.
433, Dentistry,
167+, for dental prostheses: and subclasses 215+ for tooth repair (crowns, fillings, inlays, etc.).
446, Amusement Devices: Toys,
373+, 376+, 390, and 391+ for artificial body members intended for use with dummies or dolls.