Appeal No. 1996-2211
Application No. 08/018,546
Upon return of the application, the examiner should take a step back, review all pending claims
in this application and:
1. Clarify the scope of these terms “transporting” or “transport medium”. Thereafter, the examiner
should determine the effect, if any, the scope of these terms has on patentability of the claimed
invention.
2. Obtain a copy of Takahashi et al. Animal Reprod. Sci. “[e]ffect of 2-mercaptoethanol on7
development of bovine IVF embryos,” to determine the effect, if any, this reference has on the
patentability of the claimed invention.
3. Determine whether a transportation temperature of 37EC would have been obvious in view of
the prior art.
SUMMARY
We have reversed the examiner rejections and instituted a new ground of rejection, pursuant to
37 CFR § 1.196(b), of claims 5 and 7. Claims 6, 8 and 9 are now free of a rejection. However, both
the appellants and the examiner should take into consideration the “Other Issues” raised above.
7The full text translation of Bannai makes reference to a second Takahashi reference. See, Bannai,
Reference No. 20.
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