Appeal No. 1997-3898
Application No. 08/116,382
luminescent organism detection of different separated elutes for toxicity determination"
(Answer, para. bridging pp. 4-5). The examiner further concluded that substituting the
bioluminescent toxicity assay of either Jordon or Drucker for the mutagenicity Salmonella
assay of Bjorseth "would have been an obvious modification" (Answer, p. 6, ll. 1-4).
However, the examiner has failed to explain why one of ordinary skill in the art would
have added a specific separation and identification step to the method of Jordon given
Jordon's explicit direction towards rapid detection of a broad variety of toxins as opposed
2
to specific toxins. Similarly, the examiner has failed to explain why the skilled artisan
would have added a specific separation and identification step to the method of Drucker
given the toxin-specific nature of the mutant bioluminescent microorganisms used by
Drucker. The examiner has failed to explain how and why the skilled artisan would have
changed the mutagencity test of Bjorseth into a toxicity test, especially in view of Bjorseth's
2See e.g., Jordon at c. 1, ll. 13-29
Rapid detection of toxic agents in gaseous or aerosol form is a substantial
problem for many industrial applications to warn personnel of sudden escapes of toxicants
or detect accumulations of toxicants in working areas. Several techniques are suitable for
detection systems but many of these do not find ready adaptation to field use due to
problems of reliability, maintenance, ruggedness, speed of response, size, weight, and the
like. In addition most of the systems are highly specific in that they detect the presence of
single toxic materials or limited classes of toxic materials. A system capable of detecting
small quantities of one toxic agent may be almost completely insensitive to another
toxicant which may occur in the same environment.
It is therefore a broad object of this invention to provide a toxicant detector for low
concentrations of a broad variety of toxic materials.
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