Appeal No. 2004-2343 Page 20 Application No. 09/772,520 the structures of the markers themselves. Without a description of the sequences of the markers, one cannot confirm their presence.” In response, appellant points out (Brief, page 13), “the SSR markers were from Celera AgGen, Inc., which provides a commercial service for genotyping of maize varieties.” In other words, a person of ordinary skill in the art could use the commercially available service provided by Celera AgGen, Inc. to determine whether a corn plant produced by growing a seed of the corn variety I026458 has an SSR profile which is the same as that shown in Table 6. Therefore, it is unclear to this panel why the examiner believes that such a disclosure fails to provide adequate written descriptive support for the claimed invention.16 Accordingly, we are not persuaded by the examiner’s argument. Regarding the isozyme typing profile, the examiner finds (Answer, page 17), “Table 7 provides names of loci where isozyme markers reside, for three different corn plants, and a numerical value that represents the numbers of alleles at isozyme loci types. The nucleotide sequences that make up these loci are not described.” In response, appellant points out (Brief, page 13), the isozyme “markers are well known and isozyme analysis in general [is] very well known having been used for decades.” In this regard, we remind the examiner that the inquiry into whether the description requirement is met must be determined on a case-by-case basis and is a question of fact. In re Wertheim, 541 F.2d 257, 262, 191 USPQ 90, 96 (CCPA 1976). A description as filed is 16 We are not persuaded by the examiner’s assertion (Answer, page 31) “that the [commercially available] service used to detect SSR markers is currently available is not a guarantee that it will remain so for the life of a patent issuing from the application.” Cf. In re Metcalfe, 410 F.2d 1378, 1382, 161 USPQ 789, 792-3 (CCPA 1969).Page: Previous 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007