Appeal No. 97-0480
Application No. 07/858,818
skill in the art. In re Sneed, 710 F.2d 1544, 1548, 218 USPQ 385, 388 (Fed. Cir. 1983). According
to the specification, a carrier sheet is formed of flexible biologically inert sheet material, e.g., 1 mil (i.e.,
0.025 mm) or, preferrably, 0.5 mil (i.e., 0.0127 mm) plastic coated aluminized mylar sheet sized 9 by
11 millimeters (page 8, lines 15-35). In other words, the carrier sheet is a planar structure. The carrier
sheet functions to arrange the pattern of carrier particles as they contact the target surface (sentence
bridging pages 8-9). Carrier particles are not simply dusted onto the carrier sheet in an uneven manner,
but are applied so as to form a uniform and reproducible layer of carrier particles to ensure that as
many cells on the target surface as possible are impacted (page 9, lines 1-4; page 15, lines 17-35).
Therefore, when reading the claims in light of the specification, we interpret a biologically inert “carrier
sheet” as a biologically inert planar carrier sheet and “applying” the coated carrier particles in a layer
on a biologically inert “carrier sheet” to mean evenly distributing the coated carrier particles in a layer
on a biologically inert planar carrier sheet.
b. Statement of rejection
Sanford describes physically accelerating particles, which may be coated or impregnated with
biological substances, e.g., DNA and RNA, at living cells at a speed whereby the particles penetrate
the surface of the cells and become incorporated into the cells (col. 3, lines 17-38; col. 7, lines 8-13).
Particles may be accelerated to high velocities (2a) by a shot of compressed gas blast, (2b) by
translating the kinetic energy of a bullet-sized macroprojectile hitting one side of a blast plate to
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