Appeal 2007-1819
Application 09/886,055
The Examiner relies on the following prior art references to show
unpatentability:
Burford US 2004/0224314 A1 Nov. 11, 2004
Krautwurst et al. “Identification of Ligands for Olfactory Receptors by
Functional Expression of a Receptor Library” Cell, Vol. 95 (December 23,
1998), pp. 917-926.
The rejection as presented by the Examiner is as follows:
Claims 23-33 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable
over the combination of Krautwurst and Burford.3
We reverse.
DISCUSSION
As Appellants explain, “the complexities of sensory perception of
chemical sensants[ ]4 prevent easy translation of the olfaction . . . system[ ] to
a machine sensor” (Specification 2). Therefore, Appellants’ “invention
provides methods for representing the sensory perception of one or more
chemicals (e.g., a primary sensant or mixture thereof) and/or for predicting
the sensory perception of one or more chemicals in a mammal (e.g., human)
using . . .” olfactory receptors (Specification 4).
3 We recognize Appellants’ arguments with regard to claims 34-36 (Br. 10).
However, as the Examiner explains, claims 34-36 were “withdrawn from
consideration as not directed to the elected invention” (Answer 3).
Accordingly, this is a petitionable matter not properly before us on appeal.
4 Olfactory receptors recognize odorants referred to as sensants or sensory
receptor ligands (Specification 1). “A ‘primary’ sensant is an odorant . . .
ligand that substantially binds to sensory receptors with a ligand-binding site
of a single amino acid sequence” (id.).
3
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