Appeal No. 2005-2381 Page 4
Application No. 09/944,209
See also page 4: “‘Essential amino acid’ is an art-recognized term defining a specific
set of natural α-amino acids.” Likewise, the examiner has found that the specification
describes two species of the claimed compounds, having essential α-amino acids at R3.
However, the examiner argues that, although the specification supports the
broad genus of amino acids, the smaller genus of essential α-amino acids, and two
species of essential α-amino acids, it does not support the intermediate subgenus of
(essential and other) α-amino acids.
The specification defines an amino acid as “any compound comprising at least
one amino group and at least one carboxy group.” Page 1. An α-amino acid is one in
which the amino group and the carboxyl group are attached to the same carbon atom.
See Kemp, page 323.1 Those skilled in the art have recognized, since well before the
filing date of this application, that “nearly all proteins are linear polyamides, formed by
end-to-end linkage of a universal set of 20 α-amino acids.” Kemp, page 1001. See also
Lehninger, page 96:2 “All of the 20 amino acids found in proteins have as common
denominators a carboxyl group and an amino group bonded to the same carbon atom
[that is, they are α-amino acids].”
The specification describes the R3-NH- moiety as “preferably an amino acid and
more preferentially an essential amino acid.” This description, however, must be
viewed in light of the immediately following disclosure that the diamino acids comprising
the R3-NH- moiety “can be used in particular in place of the corresponding dipeptides,
1 Kemp et al., Organic Chemistry, Worth Publishers, Inc. (1980), copy attached.
2Lehninger, Principles of Biochemistry, Worth Publishers, Inc. (1982), copy attached.
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