Appeal No. 95-3337
Application No. 07/759,100
(paragraph bridging pages 6 and 7 of specification), I am of
the opinion that one of ordinary skill in the art would have
found it prima facie obvious to include the recombinant
lysozyme of EPO '634 in a synthetic human infant formula. In
my view, incorporating recombinant lysozyme in an artificial
human infant formula would have been an obvious use of the
genetically engineered lysozyme disclosed by EPO '634. I find
this particularly so since appellant's specification states at
page 6 that "it has even been proposed to employ human
lysozyme derived from human milk to enrich synthetic cow milk
based formula so that the lysozyme-enriched cow-based infant
formula more closely approximates human milk with respect to
lysozyme content and activity. . . ." I agree with the
examiner that one of ordinary skill in the art would have had
a reasonable expectation that recombinant lysozyme is free of
human viruses. Indeed, appellant acknowledges at page 6 of
his specification that contamination with human virus "is not
a reasonable possibility when the human milk proteins,
including the so-called host resistance factors, are produced
as recombinant human milk proteins or recombinant host
resistant factors employing genetic engineering techniques."
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