Appeal No. 1996-2123
Application No. 08/069,458
The test is not merely quantitative, since a considerable amount of experimentation is
permissible, if it is merely routine or if the specification in question provides a reasonable
amount of guidance with respect to the direction in which the experimentation should
proceed to enable the determination of how to practice a desired embodiment of the
invention claimed.
Ex parte Jackson, 217 USPQ 804, 807 (1982).
The examiner takes the position that mutation of Acetobacter will result in cellulose positive
strains that will revert to cellulose negative mutants upon further culture. See, Examiner=s Answer, pages
10-11. To support this conclusion, the examiner relies upon Valla. However, upon review of the Valla
reference, it appears that the conclusion reached therein is inconsistent with the examiner=s position. Valla
starts with cellulose positive strains of Acetobacter xylinum. Valla then observe that this cellulose
positive strain of Acetobacter xylinum was capable of spontaneously (and reversibly) mutating to
cellulose negative strains upon extended culture. Valla specifically state at page 1404 A[t]he apparent
selection of Cel- mutants by growth in shake flask culture is thus at least partly a consequence of the
method of sampling, the Cel- cells being transferred and the Cel+ cells in the aggregates being left behind.@
At page 1405, Valla conclude that A[t]he very high frequency of cellulose-negative mutants often
observed during routine cultivation of the wild-type A. xylinum is thus due to biological selection [e.g. the
Cel- cells being transferred and the Cel+ cells in the aggregates being left behind] and not to an extremely
high mutation frequency.@
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