Appeal No. 94-2990
Application 07/932,577
(1) Bartlett does not contain any disclosure, express
or implicit, suggesting that patentee contemplates carrying out
xenogeneic transplantation;
(2) The pharmacological tests disclosed by Bartlett use
the same species; and
(3) Bartlett discloses the use of medicaments to combat
chronic graft-versus-host diseases. Manifestly, Bartlett’s
method is directed to treating recipients who survive in the
long-term, whereas Auchincloss discloses that “no long term
successful xenograft has ever been achieved”. See Auchincloss,
page 1, right-hand column, last paragraph. For these reasons, we
believe it reasonable to infer that Bartlett is restricted to
allogeneic transplantation.
The dispositive question is whether it would have been
obvious, on this record, to extend Bartlett’s method of treating
chronic rejection reactions to a method of treating rejection
reactions resulting from xenogeneic transplantation. We answer
that question in the negative.
The examiner does not point to any evidence of record
suggesting that the recipients of xenogeneic transplantation
suffer from chronic rejection or a chronic graft-versus-host
disease state. In the absence of such evidence, the question
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