Appeal No. 1995-2297
Application No. 07/797,493
hematopoietic progenitor cells, particularly of the myeloid, lymphoid, and erythroid
lineages.”
In view of this disclosure, the scope of appellants’ claims 13 and 14 is unclear. The
claims are drawn to “[a] chimeric mouse having a stable bone marrow graft of lineage-
specific human hematopoietic cells . . . .” Appellants’ Examples 5 and 6 demonstrate that
the bone marrow graft includes “multiple lineages of myeloid, lymphoid and erythroid cells,”
and that administration of a lineage specific growth factor supports the differentiation of
engrafted precursor cells into mature cells. Nothing in the claim requires the presence of
“mature” cells, thus the lineage-specific human hematopoietic cells claimed can include
precursor cells. However, it appears that appellants intend the lineage specific cells to be
“mature cells”, see, e.g., Brief, page 10, “only macrophage progenitors were found; no
mature cells nor any other lineages were found.” In addition, differentiation in response to
a particular lineage specific growth factor does not appear to exclude the presence of
other lineages from the “multiple lineages of myeloid, lymphoid and erythroid cells” present
in appellants’ graft. See, e.g., Specification, page 13, Example 5. If the term “having” is
interpreted as open language the presence of other lineages can be included and bone
marrow may meet the limitations of the claim. Therefore, the scope of appellants’ claim
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