Appeal No. 2007-0054
Application No. 08/846,722
anti-inflammatory composition (col. 8, lines 36-57; col. 9, lines 61-68).”
(Answer 4.)
The Examiner concludes that a person of ordinary skill in the art
would have found it obvious to administer Katz’s pyruvate-containing anti-
inflammatory composition to treat inflammation of the nasal and sinus
cavities because Amschler teaches administering anti-inflammatory
compositions to treat such conditions. (Answer 4-5.) In particular, the
Examiner argues that “the skilled artisan, when examining the general
teaching of Katz with the teaching of Amschler et al. that the inflammatory
agents disclosed therein are known to be useful for both the treatment of
inflammatory disorders of the lung and nose, would have been motivated by
an expectation of success in treating inflammatory disorders of the nose with
the methods and compositions of Katz.” (Answer 9.)
We conclude that the Examiner has set forth a prima facie case that
claim 1 would have been obvious. Katz describes “a method for treating the
disease state in mammals caused by mammalian cells involved in the
inflammatory response.” (Col. 4, ll. 58-60.) The method comprises
“contacting the mammalian cells participating in the inflammatory response
with an inflammatory mediator; wherein the inflammatory mediator is
present in an amount capable of reducing the undesired inflammatory
response and is an antioxidant.” (Col. 4, ll. 61-67.) Katz lists pyruvate and
pyruvate precursors as preferred inflammatory mediators. (Col. 7, ll. 21-23.)
The inflammatory mediator is preferably “administered locally to the site of
inflammation.” (Col. 6, ll. 45-47.) Katz states that “[t]ypical airway
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