Patent Interference No. 103,548
indoles have "significantly different stability characteristics and oxidation mechanisms".
(1) With respect to stability, Lagrange directs our attention to the Konrad specification
(page 1, line 6 to page 2, line 4) and the Lagrange patent (col. 1, lines 18-27). (2) With
respect to oxidation, we are directed to a publication by Chavdarian (LR 14).
Regarding (1), there appears to be no dispute that indoles and indolines exhibit
different stabilities (see e.g., KOB 4, paragraph 10). However, we do not see how this
makes Grollier's teaching with regard toi indoles irrelevant to Lagrange's indolines. The
instant indolines are acknowledged to be related to their indole counterparts. For
example, both parties recognized that 5,6-hydroxyindoles are relatively unstable as
compared to 5,6-dihydroxyindolines and that 5,6-dihydroxyindoline hair dyes do not
exhibit the stability problems associated with 5,6-hydroxyindole (Lagrange Patent '637,
column 1, lines 23-30; Konrad application '851, pp. 1-2). "A reference is reasonably
pertinent if ... it is one which, because of the matter with which it deals, logically would
have commended itself to an inventor's attention in considering his problem." In re Clay,
966 F.2d 656, 659, 23 USPQ2d 1058, 1060-61 (Fed. Cir. 1992). In our view, Grollier's
teachings would have commended itself to the attention of persons having ordinary skill
in the art and that makes its teaching relative indoles relevant to the subject indolines.
Regarding (2), we agree with Konrad that Chavdarian is irrelevant because it
shows a "theoretical, mechanistical consideration of oxidation reactions of
catecholamines" (KOB 4, paragraph 11). Chavdarian is directed to catecholamines
32 Although the Lagrange patent claims both the unsubstituted and C1 alkyl N-substituted indolines (e.g.,
claim 25), those claims are not before us. The reissue application amended the patent claims to eliminate
any reference to them.
27
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