Ex parte GHIONE et al. - Page 11


            Appeal No. 1995-3257                                                        
            Application 08/056,382                                                      



            over patent claim 1.  Even if their conventionality were                    
            true (and examiner provides no substantiating evidence),                    
            it is                                                                       


            not clear how one with ordinary skill would have found it                   
            obvious to combine an antidotal effective amount of the                     
            antibody with a "pharmaceutically acceptable topical"                       
            carrier based only on the information provided by patent                    
            claim 1.  The only reason for doing so would be for the                     
            purpose and the potential benefits appellants have                          
            disclosed.  However consulting the disclosure of U.S.                       
            Patent 5,177,016 is impermissible because when                              
            considering whether the invention defined in a claim of                     
            an application is an obvious variation of the invention                     
            defined in the claim of a patent, the disclosure of the                     
            patent may not be used as though it were prior art.  In                     
            re Sarett, 327 F.2d 1005, 1012-13, 140 USPQ 474, 481                        
            (CCPA 1964).  To the extent that examiner is reading                        
            patent claim 1 to inherently include a carrier, we merely                   
            point out that patent claim 1 defines nothing more than a                   
            monoclonal antibody.  "We are not here concerned with                       
            what one skilled in the art would be aware from reading                     

                          11                                                            




Page:  Previous  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  Next 

Last modified: November 3, 2007