Appeal No. 1997-4381
Application 08/440,734
1. Claims 1-17 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112, first paragraph, as
unpatentable for lack of enablement.
2. Claims 9-12 and 15-16 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as unpatentable
for obviousness over Payne or Hettinga in view of Nordstrom.
35 U.S.C. § 112, first paragraph
Claims 1-17 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. §112, first paragraph, as unpatentable
for lack of enablement.
It is the examiner’s position that the specification does not describe the nature and
characteristics of the claimed blocking peptides. The examiner argues that the
specification only demonstrates that whey hydrolyzate with components of a molecular
weight lower than 10,000 Daltons will prevent lysis of two specific strains of bacteria by two
distinct phages. It is further alleged that appellant presents no data to demonstrate that
the hydrolyzate consists of immunoglobulin peptides. Answer, page 4. The examiner
contends, similarly, that appellant has not demonstrated the usefulness of using digested
bacteriophages to block phage infection of bacteria used in the cheese making process,
such as lactic acid bacteria. Answer, page 5.
The examiner supports the rejection of lack of enablement with argument but not
evidence that 1) virology is a highly unpredictable art, 2) that the site of phage attachment
is unknown and varies from phage to phage and bacteria to bacteria, 3) that the
4
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007