Appeal No. 2002-1545 Page 5
Application No. 08/949,757
described by structure, physical or chemical characteristics,
function correlated with structure or a combination of these
sufficient to establish that the applicant had possession of the
claimed antigens. See the Interim Guidelines on Written
Description,.(Fed Reg , June 15, 1998, Volume 63, Number 114,
pages 32639-32645).
Examiner’s Answer, page 5.
The rejection acknowledges that the EFS1 was prepared from specific
strains as set forth in the specification, but goes on to assert that the structure of
the antigen is not taught, and thus the specification is not enabling for all the
species of the four recited sugars in any antigenic configuration. The rejection
notes that
[a] representative number of species have not been described by
sufficient relevant identifying characteristics, such as function
correlated with structural characteristics. Only a NMR spectra for
the entire carbohydrate is provided and the specific bonds and
orientation of the sugars one to another is not ascertainable from
this information. The specification also teaches the presence of
phosphates and other components but how the whole structure is
put together is not disclosed therefore the specification does not
provide written description of epitope components of the whole
carbohydrate.
Id. at 6.
While the specification discloses three different antigens that are
characteristic of different Enterococcal antigens, the rejection asserts that the
carbohydrates appear to be distinct and not fragments of one another, and thus
“significantly different corresponding proteins . . . work together for the
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