Appeal No. 1997-2167
Application 08/137,444
The examiner also expresses his belief that the prior art
on which he has relied establishes that there was, at the time
of appellants' invention, no known cure or even treatment for
Alzheimer's disease. In the first instance, as we have stated
above, appellants do not claim either a cure of or even
treatment for Alzheimer's disease but claim a method for
treating a specific type of memory dysfunction. Secondly, the
operative claim term used is "treating" by administration of
the claimed compounds to a mammal. We consider the term
"treatment" to encompass a method which results in the
mitigation of any symptom of the condition being treated but
not to encompass "curing" the condition. We also disagree
with the examiner's position that a method of treating a
disease or medical condition must address the underlying
disease or condition. Persons who suffer from allergies such
as hayfever, for example, "treat" their symptoms with
antihistamines and, yet, still have the underlying allergy.
Appellants' specification describes how to synthesize the
claimed galanthamine compounds (see page 3, line 27 through
page 6, line 2 of the specification), including forty-one
examples of the synthesis of compounds within the claims
(pages 10 through 40 of the specification). Appellants
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