Appeal No. 1997-3322
Application No. 08/353,940
heterodimeric polypeptides, the majority of which are " and $ polypeptides.
Specification, page 1.
The specification discloses two embodiments of the invention, the expression of
single V" or V$ T-cell receptor domains (specification, page 19, line 29 to page 20, line
30), and the co-expression of V" and V$ T-cell receptor domains (specification, page 20,
line 32, et seq.). The claimed invention relates to a cloning vector which expresses and
secretes either V" or V$ T-cell receptor variable domain in a gram-negative cell.
According to the invention the secretion must be into the bacterial periplasm or into a
culture medium. The cloning vector comprises the following elements in the 5' to 3'
direction, which are operatively linked: (a) an inducible promoter DNA sequence; (b) a
leader sequence; and (c) a DNA sequence encoding a V" or V$ T-cell receptor variable
domain.
PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
A Declaration under 37 CFR § 1.131 was submitted in the application on July 24,
1996. The Declaration was summarily dismissed by the examiner. We find the failure of
the examiner to consider the Declaration under 37 CFR § 1.131 on the merits to be
procedural error which would normally require remand of the application to the examiner
for appropriate consideration. However, we have proceeded with consideration of the
rejections of the claims under 35 U.S.C. §§ 102 and 103. Our reversal of the rejections
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