Appeal No. 1996-2910
Application 07/825,488
Examiner’s Answer, paper no. 27. Therefore, we shall treat this rejection as having
been withdrawn.
During oral argument counsel for appellants, Ellen Ciambrone Coletti, withdrew
the appeal with respect to claim 20. Appeal was also withdrawn with respect to claim
23 (which depends from claim 20) pursuant to a telephone conversation with counsel
on February 16, 2000.
Accordingly, the appeal with respect to claims 20 and 23 is dismissed, and the
only rejection remaining for our consideration is that of claims 21, 22, 24, 25 and 26
under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as unpatentable over Van Lommen. For the reasons set forth
below, we reverse the rejection. In addition, we raise several issues for consideration
on return of the application to the examining group.
DISCUSSION
Van Lommen discloses unresolved stereoisomeric mixtures of the
antihypertensive compound ","’-[iminobismethylene]bis[6-fluoro-3,4-dihydro-2H-1-
benzopyran-2-methanol] (compounds 84 and 87, column 21). The compound has four
chiral carbons, and ten possible stereoisomers. As acknowledged in the Brief (page 7)
and oral argument, compound 84 is an unresolved mixture of four of the ten isomers,
designated RSSS, SRRR, RSRR and SRSS. At column 4, lines 40-58, Van Lommen
states that “[p]ure stereochemically isomeric forms of the compounds . . . may be
obtained by the application of art-known procedures” and “[s]tereochemically isomeric
3
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