Appeal No. 1996-2211
Application No. 08/018,546
II. Effect of claim interpretation on the application of prior art.
Upon review of Takahashi we find bovine embryos cultured in TCM-199 supplemented with
10% FCS containing 10 or 50 TM cysteamine at 39EC. We note that appellants’ claims use the term
“comprising” to allow for the inclusion of TCM-199 supplemented with 10% FCS in the medium. In
fact, appellants’ specification, at page 3, describes the medium as including TCM-199 supplemented
with 10% FCS. While Takahashi is silent with regards to the term “transporting,” some movement,
“transport,” of the culture from one place to another during the study, even if it was simply from the
“warm box” to the lab bench, would be a necessary or inherent step in the process. The results
obtained in Takahashi suggest to one of ordinary skill in the art to include the low molecular weight thiol
compound, cysteamine, in the culture of bovine embryos, due to its significant effect of blastocyst
development. Takahashi teach “development to blastocysts was significantly higher when embryos
were cultured in the medium containing 10 and 50 TM cysteamine than when they were cultured in the
medium without cysteamine
(Table 1).”
Accordingly, we make the following new grounds of rejection under 37 CFR § 1.196(b):
If the claims are interpreted as transportation over a nominal distance, e.g. from a “warm box” to a
laboratory bench, then a “transportation medium” is not distinguishable from a culture medium.
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