Appeal No. 2004-1505 Page 3
Application No. 09/016,743
In amending claim 1 to recite a “complete” antibody, appellants introduced
perhaps needless confusion into the record since the specification does not appear to
use the phrase “complete antibody.” Rather, antibodies as used in the present
invention are defined as follows:
The term ‘antibodies’ as used herein refers to various types of
immunoglobulin, including IgG, IgM, and IgA, and their relevant
subclasses. The antibodies may be monoclonal or polyclonal and may be
of any species of origin, including (for example) mouse, rat, rabbit, horse,
or human, or may be chimeric antibodies, and include antibody fragments
such as, for example, Fab, F(ab')2 ' and Fv fragments, and the
corresponding fragments obtained from antibodies other than IgG.
Specification, paragraph bridging pages 22 and 23.
Thus, appellants indicate in the original disclosure of this application that
antibodies used from the present invention may be antibodies that may be aptly
characterized as “whole,” “intact,” “complete,” or “entire” or antibody fragments such as
Fab, F(ab')2 ' and Fv fragments. Appellants argue “since the term ‘antibodies’ is defined
as including whole antibodies like IgG, IgM, and IgA, as well as fragments, it is apparent
that the phrase ‘complete antibody’ means complete in the sense of having a complete
structure, i.e. an antibody structure having VH and VL domains as well as constant
regions CH1, CH2 and CH3.” Examiner’s Answer, page 13, first paragraph.
The examiner does not dispute that the original disclosure of this application
describes “whole” antibodies as well as fragments thereof. Nor has the examiner
established that one of ordinary skill in the art would have difficulty in understanding the
difference between a “whole” or “complete” antibody and a fragment thereof. As we
view the record, appellants have chosen to restrict their invention to the embodiment
that includes a whole or complete antibody as opposed to the embodiment which
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