Appeal No. 2004-1968 Page 5
Application No. 10/000,311
has indicated that claims drawn to a process of producing corn seed wherein the
process comprises crossing a first parent corn plant with a second parent corn
plant are allowable. See e.g., claim 11, and Final Rejection, mailed July 1, 2003,
wherein the examiner states claim 11 is allowed.
A third aspect of the present invention is a corn plant from the inbred corn
line LH321 further comprising “a cytoplasmic factor that is capable of conferring
male sterility” (specification, paragraph 24); or transformed so that its genetic
material contains one or more transgenes operably linked to one or more
regulatory elements” (see e.g., claims 26-28). As appellant explains
(specification, paragraph 13), “[I]t should be understood that the inbred can,
through routine manipulation of cytoplasmic or other factors, be produced in a
male-sterile form.” According to appellant (specification, paragraph 67)
scientists in the filed of plant biology developed a strong interest in
engineering the genome of plants to confer and express foreign
genes, or additional , or modified versions of native, or
endogenous, genes (perhaps driven by different promoters) in
order to alter the traits of a plant in a specific manner. Such foreign
additional and/or modified genes are referred to herein collectively
as “transgenes”. Over the last fifteen to twenty years several
methods for producing transgenic plants have been developed, and
the present invention, in particular embodiments, also relates to
transformed versions of the claimed inbred line.
A final aspect of the present invention is directed to a process of
producing an inbred corn plant derived from a plant of the inbred corn line LH321
(see e.g., claims 11, 19 and 30), as well as hybrid plants and seed resulting from
such a process (see e.g., claims 12-16). As discussed, supra, the examiner has
indicated that claim 11 was allowable. According to appellant’s specification
(paragraph 56),
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