Appeal No. 1996-0160
Application 07/898,691
III. Claims 2, 7, 11, 16 and 21 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112, second
paragraph, as being vague and indefinite.5
IV. Claims 1 through 5, 7, 9, 15 through 17 and 19 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 102(a) as being anticipated by Corbin.
V. Claims 10 through 12, 14, 20 through 22 and 24 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Corbin.
We reverse Rejection I. We affirm Rejections II, III, IV and V. Our reasons follow.
Tropical spastic paresis (TSP) is a neurological disease caused by the human
retrovirus HTLV-I. According to the appellants, the defining pathology for TSP is spasticity
and limb weakness. Reply Brief, p. 12; Perk declaration (attachment to Paper No. 7), p. 9.
Unlike AIDS, which is caused by the retrovirus HTLV-III, HTLV-I/TSP does
not rapidly progress to death. That is, patients typically live for 30-40 years. Rodgers-
Johnson I, p. 206.
The claimed invention is directed to a method of treating TSP in mammals using a
peptide known as “Peptide T,” or specific fragments and analogues thereof. Peptide
T, is so called, because of its high threonine content. Specification, p. 7. The amino acid
5At oral argument, counsel for the appellants was not aware that this rejection was
still pending in the application. We have carefully reviewed the examiner’s Answer (Paper
No. 25) and supplemental Answers (Paper Nos. 29 and 34); however, we do not find any
indication that the rejection was withdrawn.
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