Appeal No. 1997-0467
Application 08/318,019
80-85EC.” Dependent claim 19 requires that the cyclodextrin glycosyl transferase be
derived from a strain of Clostridium thermoamylolyticum, and claim 20 recites the strain
ATCC 39,252. Likewise, dependent claim 21 requires that the cyclodextrin glycosyl
transferase be derived from a strain of Clostridium thermo-hydrosulfuricum, and claim 22
recites the strain ATCC 53,016. The examiner acknowledges that applicant's cyclodextrin
glycosyl transferase is novel and unobvious. See the examiner's answer, page 8, first full
paragraph, referring to “the novel and patentable cyclodextrin glycosyl transferase.” Also,
see page 8, second full paragraph (“[t]he process as claimed employs the novel glycosyl
transferase”); page 9, last line, referring to applicant's “novel patentable transferase;” and
page 10, lines 2 and 3, referring to “the patentable transferase.” Where, as here,
applicant's cyclodextrin glycosyl transferase constitutes an essential limitation in each
claim on appeal, and where the examiner acknowledges that applicant's cyclodextrin
glycosyl transferase is novel, unobvious, and patentable, it follows that the cited prior art
would not have led a person having ordinary skill to the claimed process considered as a
whole.
The rejection of claims 15, 16 and 18 through 22 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
unpatentable over Maize is reversed.
As stated in the examiner's answer, page 12, second paragraph:
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