Appeal No. 2001-2168
Application No. 09/083,307
determining the issue of patentability. This group of
claims is identified on pages 4 and 11 of the main brief as
group 3. We are therefore authorized under 37 CFR
§ 1.192(c)(7), as amended effective April 21, 1995, to
select a single claim from group 3, and to decide the
appeal of the claims in group 3 on basis of the
patentability of that representative claim alone.
Accordingly, we will select claim 7 as being representative
of group 3, with the result that the remaining claim in
that group, namely claim 21, shall stand or fall with claim
7. See also In re Young, 927 F.2d at 590, 18 USPQ2d at
1091 and In re Wood, 582 F.2d at 642, 199 USPQ at 140.
Claim 7 calls for the removal of soluble TNF receptor
1 and receptor 2 molecules. In support of the § 103
rejection of this claim, the examiner has made the finding
on pages 6-7 of the answer that being soluble in the
patient’s blood, the TNF receptor 1 and receptor 2
molecules will be removed along with the other blood
components, presumably by Lentz’s membrane blood filter.
In any case, the examiner has made the additional finding
that Chen teaches that TNF receptor 1 and receptor 2
molecules help to evade the immune response against a tumor
as set forth on page 549 of the Chen publication. The
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