Upon consideration of Appellants' Brief on Appeal (Paper 31), the Examiner's Answer (Paper 32), Appellants' Reply Brief (Paper 33), the Supplemental Examiner's Answer (Paper 34), and the Appellants' Supplemental Reply Brief (Paper 35), we reverse the rejection of claims 6 to 11, 16, 18, and 19 as being unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 103 in view of Souquet, Morgan, Doepfner, Bauer, and Camisa. With all due respect to the Examiner's position, we seriously doubt that one skilled in the art would have been motivated to modify the subcutaneous treatment described by Souquet and make it into a topical treatment without the benefit of knowledge found only in Appellants' disclosure. On this record, it is Appellants who first disclose the concept that melanomas express somatostatin receptors . The prior art relied upon by the Examiner does2 not teach or suggest the concept. It is improper to rely on Appellants' disclosure as motivation for combining the prior art. See W.L. Gore & Assocs. v. Garlock, Inc., 721 F.2d 1540, 1553, 220 USPQ 303, 312-13 (Fed. Cir. 1983) ("To imbue one of ordinary skill in the art with knowledge of the invention in suit, when no prior art reference or references of record convey or suggest that knowledge, is to fall victim to the See Appellants' Specification at Page 1.2 -2-Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007