Appeal No. 2001-0400
Application No. 08/751,624
phenothiazine dye from treated plasma. There is simply no adequate connection
made in the cited references between the phenothiazine dye-containing blood
taught by Heinmets and the chromatographic media taught by Sugiyama and
Hodgson. the Bio-Rad catalog is not said to remedy, and does not remedy, this
deficiency.
Since the prior art provides insufficient motivation to modify the process
taught by Heinmets by substituting one of the claim-recited adsorbents for the ion
exchange resin used by Heinmets, the prior art does not support a prima facie
case of obviousness. We therefore reverse the § 103 rejection of claim 16.
Other Issues
During prosecution, Appellants submitted several declarations which had
been executed for submission in application 08/707,992. That application bears
no apparent formal relationship to the present application: neither application
refers to the other, the priority applications in the two cases are completely
different, and there is no overlap in inventive entity. The ‘992 application issued
as U.S. Patent 5,827,644 on October 27, 1998, and seeks the benefit of an
earlier filing date based on a chain of applications to at least May 11, 1989, and
possibly October 28, 1988.
The disclosure and claims of the ‘664 patent concern inactivation of
human immunodeficiency virus with a thiazine dye, such as methylene blue, and
light. The ‘644 patent is prior art under 35 U.S.C. § 102(e) (assuming it is entitled
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