Appeal No. 97-0480
Application No. 07/858,818
DECISION ON APPEAL
This is an appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from the decision of the examiner refusing to allow
claims 10, 13, 14 and 16 as amended subsequent to the final rejection, which are all of the claims
pending in this application. Claim 10 is illustrative:2
10. A method of delivering genes into the cells of a plant comprising the steps
of:
preparing copies of an expression vector appropriate for the plant including an
exogenous coding region and flanking regulatory sequences effective to express the
coding region in the cells of the plant;
coating the copies of the expression vector onto biologically inert carrier
particles;
applying the coated carrier particles in a layer on a biologically inert carrier
sheet;
placing the carrier sheet above a pair of spaced electrodes which have a gap
between them bridged by a water droplet;
mounting a retaining screen spaced above the carrier sheet for retaining the
carrier sheet after a selected upward distance of travel;
placing on a target surface above the retaining screen cells of the plant; and
applying an electric voltage between the electrodes sufficient to generate an
electric discharge between the electrodes vaporizing the water droplet, the shock wave
from which accelerates the carrier sheet toward the retaining screen which retains the
carrier sheet permitting the carrier particles to continue on to penetrate the cells of the
plant, the force of the penetration being controlled by the voltage of the electric
discharge.
The examiner relies upon the following references as evidence of obviousness:
2Claims 15, 26 and 27 were cancelled and claim 10 was amended by the Amendment filed April 10, 1995
(Paper no. 16) which was approved by the examiner in the Advisory Action mailed May 05, 1995 (Paper no. 18).
Claim 17 was cancelled and claims 10 and 16 were further amended by the Amendment filed September 07, 1995
(Paper no. 22) which was approved by the examiner in the Advisory Action mailed November 15, 1995 (Paper no. 24).
2
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