Appeal No. 2004-1935 Page 4
Application No. 09/308,403
Discussion
According to Appellant, the claims stand or fall in two groups. See the Appeal
Brief, pages 5-6. We will consider claims 1 and 17 as representative.
Claim 1 is directed to a composition comprising a hemicellulosic material that
contains arabinoxylan ferulate, an oxidase, and an oxidase substrate. Claim 17 is
directed to a method for effecting oxidative gelation of a hemicellulose-based
composition; the method comprises promoting in situ generation of hydrogen peroxide
by providing oxygen, water, or an oxidase substrate to the composition or activating a
redox enzyme in the composition.
The examiner rejected all of the claims as obvious in view of Greenshields and
Crawford. See the Examiner’s Answer, page 5:
Greenshields discloses the peroxidase-catalyzed oxidative gelling of
feruloylated arabinoxylans from various plant and cereal sources. . . .
See, e.g., Abstract; see also col. 5, lines 17-50. Greenshields differs from
the claims in that Greenshields adds the peroxidase’s substrate,
[hydrogen] peroxide, directly to the gelling composition, as opposed to
generating the peroxide in situ by adding glucose oxidase and glucose
[(an oxidase substrate)], as recited in appellant’s claims.
However, Crawford clearly discloses that a combination of glucose and
glucose oxidase can be used effectively to generate in situ the peroxide
required for peroxidase action on a polysaccharide substrate. See col. 6,
lines 32-43. Thus, the artisan of ordinary skill at the time of appellant’s
invention clearly would have recognized that an effective method of
generating the peroxide required for peroxidase action in Greenshields’
process would have been the generation of the peroxide in situ by adding
glucose and glucose oxidase to the gelling composition, as disclosed in
Crawford.
We agree with the examiner that Greenshields and Crawford support a prima
facie case of obviousness. In Example 1, Greenshields discloses production of a gel
from corn bran. The corn bran was ground, treated with cytase enzyme, extracted with
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