Interference 102,728
position, Singh appeared to urge that Dr. Singh’s conception occurred sometime before
Brake’s January 12, 1983, filing date. Id., p. 88
As to the events which were said to have occurred between December 1, 1982,
and January 12, 1983, Singh argued (Paper No. 151, pp. 85-87):
By December 1, 1982, Dr. Singh had devised a plan to delete from the
DNA construct contained in p60, the DNA encoding “Gh [sic, Glu] -Ala-Glu-Ala-
Leu-Glu-Phe-Met.” The resulting construct would conform to the Count. Dr.
Singh's solution was to use a new methodology developed by his Genentech co-
workers called “loop-deletion mutagenesis.”
The loop-deletion mutagenesis process utilized methodology that was
developed at Genentech late in 1982 and was first published late in 1983 by
several Genentech scientists which included Mr. Vasser. (Vasser, SR 1059-
1060; SX 53). As shown and described in the article, the DNA to be deleted was
looped-out by the annealing of a synthetic oligodeoxyribonucleotide to the coding
strand of the gene contained on the single stranded form of the recombinant
phage M13mp8 DNA. The resulting heteroduplex structure was then stabilized
using primer-directed in vitro DNA synthesis in the presence of T4 DNA ligase.
On transformation of E. coli, the heteroduplex DNAs yield phage whose
genomes contained either the original or the partially deleted gene, and
genotypes were distinguished by in situ plaque hybridization with synthetic
oligonucleotide probes. %%%
On December 1, 1982, Dr. Singh requested the synthesis of an
oligonucleotide 24 nucleotides in length to be used in his loop-deletion
mutagenesis process. This is corroborated by Mr. Ng (Ng, SR 478, 516-517).
This request was verified by the signatures of Mr. Vasser dated December 1,
1982 and Mr. Ng dated December 20, 1982. The request was also corroborated
by other records kept by the DNA Synthesis department. (Ng, SR 478; SX 6,
Bates No. 186; SX 7, Bates No. 192). Mr. Ng also verified that the synthesis was
completed December 20, 1982 (Ng, SR 478). Dr. Singh and his co-workers
subsequently used that methodology, and those materials, to successfully
complete the reduction to practice.
Thus, on this record, the merits panel concluded that Singh had not met its
burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, that it had conceived of the
invention of Count 1 on either October 1, or prior to January 12, 1983.
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