Appeal No. 95-2419
Application 07/850,770
We understand that it is incumbent upon the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to
explain why one skilled in the art would reasonably doubt the objective truth of the enabling
statement contained in a supporting specification. In re Marzocchi, 439 F.2d 220, 223,
169 USPQ 367, 369 (CCPA 1971). Here, there are no portions of the specification which
are particularly helpful in providing enablement for the vaccine aspect of the present
invention. As seen, for example, at page 8 of the specification, the selectively
deglycosylated HIV-1 envelope proteins of the present invention are only viewed as
“candidates” for vaccines. As explained at page 19, lines 9-19, of the supporting
specification:
Candidate vaccine gp120 molecules should generally possess the
following properties: 1) they should be partially deglycosylated in the
C-terminal portion of the molecule (defined above) to a sufficient extent to
permit immune recognition of this portion of the molecule; and 2) a sufficient
amount of the wild type conformation of the molecular should be retained
such that the mutant virus substantially retains infectivity. A recombinant
gp120 molecule which satisfies both of these criteria is likely to elicit a
protective immune response to reduce viral infectivity.
As seen, partially deglycosylated proteins according to the present invention which meet
these two criteria are only considered to be “candidates” for vaccine purposes.
Other relevant information in the supporting specification in regard to the vaccine
aspect of the present invention is set forth at page 22, lines 22-30, as follows:
The mutant envelope protein may be formulated into vaccines
according to standard procedures known to those in the field. For example,
procedures currently used to make wild-type envelope protein vaccines (e.g.,
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