Appeal No. 1996-3326
Application No. 08/063,067
OPINION
“[T]he examiner bears the initial burden, on review of
the prior art or on any other ground, of presenting a prima
facie case of unpatentability.” In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443,
1445, 24 USPQ2d 1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir. 1992). Furthermore, in
construing the scope of the claims, the examiner must give
effect to all claim limitations. See In re Angstadt, 537 F.2d
498, 501, 190 USPQ 214, 217 (CCPA 1976). Therefore the locus
or population of subjects that is treated in the method of the
claims on appeal is limited to those subjects with hypotension
caused by pathological overproduction of nitric oxide from
arginine induced in vascular smooth muscle cells by therapy
with cytokine (claim 1) or by bacterial endotoxins (claim 6).
The examiner finds that the teachings of Kwon “would have
motivated the skilled artisan, charged with treating
hypotension to reduce cellular NO levels by inhibiting the
2
activity of dihydrofolate reductase.” (Supplemental Answer,
page 5). However, the examiner has not rebutted appellant’s
argument that Kwon is directed only to the generation of
nitrogen oxides in murine macrophages, not vascular cells (see
4
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