Appeal No. 2001-1973 Page 2
Application No. 08/734,184
The examiner relies on the following references:
Clement et al. (Clement) 3,403,471 Oct. 01, 1968
Dunahay et al. (Dunahay) 5,661,017 Aug. 26, 1997
Timmons (ed.), “Aquacultural Engineering and Waste Management,”
Proceedings from the Aquaculture Expo VIII and Aquaculture in the Mid-Atlantic
Conference, pp. 167-186 (1995)
Claims 1-9 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as anticipated by, or
alternatively under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as obvious over, Timmons.
Claims 1 and 5-9 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as anticipated
by, or alternatively under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as obvious over, Clement.
Claims 2-4 and 10 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as obvious over
Clement and Dunahay.
We affirm the rejection based on Timmons, do not reach the rejection
based on Clement alone, and reverse the rejection based on Clement and
Dunahay.
Background
Microalgae are an important food source for shrimp and fish, and therefore
microalgae culturing methods are important to the aquaculture industry. See the
specification, page 1. In addition, “[c]ompounds which are active against several
drug resistant pathogenic bacteria have been isolated from the Chaetoceros sp.
microalgae.” Id., page 2. Thus, methods of culturing Chaetoceros sp. would be
useful in developing new antibiotics. Id.
However, “[e]xisting methods for mass cultivating Chaetoceros sp. and
other microalgae have proven inadequate. The primary difficulty in culturing
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007