Appeal No. 1996-0927
Application 07/888,203
On the record before us, the examiner appears to have made use of appellant's
disclosed invention to interpret and construe the references relied upon. The examiner
provides no tie to bind these references together and points to no reason, suggestion, or
motivation which would have lead one of ordinary skill in this art to genetically alter a
stromal cell and a stem cell in a manner which would result in each expressing a member
of a ligand-receptor binding pair and administering these altered cells to a host in order to
"home" the stem cells to the stromal cells. Where, as here, the examiner fails to establish
a prima facie case, the rejection is improper and will be overturned. In re Fine, 837 F.2d
1071, 1074, 5 USPQ2d 1596, 1598 (Fed. Cir.1988). Therefore, the rejection of claims 3-
9 and 22-23 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 is reversed.
Summary
The decision of the examiner to reject claims 3-9 and 22-23 under 35 U.S.C. §
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