Appeal No. 1996-0223
Application No. 07/931,563
total calcium. Thus, Zimmerman does not disclose or suggest the elution or “releasing step” of the4
claimed invention.
Based on the foregoing, we REVERSE the examiner’s rejection of claims 10, 11 and 13-15 as
anticipated by Zimmerman.
II. Rejection of claims 2, 3, 5-8, 17, 23-28 and 32 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable
over Swanson in view of any one or more of Falb, Zimmerman and Furie 1979.
The examiner bears the initial burden of establishing a prima facie case of obviousness. To
establish a prima facie case of obviousness, there must be both some suggestion or motivation to
modify the reference or combine reference teachings and a reasonable expectation of success.
In re Vaeck, 947 F.2d 488, 493, 20 USPQ2d 1438, 1442 (Fed. Cir. 1991).
Swanson describes calcium-dependent and calcium independent antibodies, i.e.,
conformationally specific antibodies, and their use to study prothrombin precursors (see e.g., pages
6011 and 6017-18). Figure 2 illustrates the binding of plasma prothrombin and microsomal precursors
to the Ca -independent antibody, which occurs in the presence of either 2 mM EDTA or 1 mM CaCl++
2
(2A) and to the Ca -dependent antibody, which occurs in the presence of CaCl but not in the++
2
presence of EDTA (2B) (page 6013, col. 2 - page 6014, col. 1).
Falb discloses that immobilized antibodies can be used to purify antigens (page 202).
4According to Tietz’s TEXTBOOK OF CLINICAL CHEMISTRY (W.B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia,
1986) (copy attached).
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