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Appeal Number: 2005-2193
Application Number: 09/385,405
and preservatives (Id.). The claims are directed to a method of treating the waste material to
obtain a purified gelatin that can be recycled back to the encapsulation process.
Claim 71 is illustrative:
71. A method of treating a waste material containing gelatin comprising:
(a) combining the waste material and a solvent for the gelatin under
conditions sufficient to form a first liquid containing gelatin, said waste material
containing at least one first component which can not effectively be separated
from the first liquid into a non-solvent based layer;
(b) separating the first liquid into a solvent based layer containing the
gelatin and said at least one first component and a non-solvent based layer; and
(c) treating the solvent based layer with a process which removes the first
component from the solvent based layer to form a second liquid containing gelatin
having a higher purity than the first liquid being at least substantially devoid of
the first component.
The Examiner maintains rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 1 as well rejections over
prior art references.1 To support the rejections over prior art, the Examiner relies on the
following prior art references:
Schmidt et al. (Schmidt) US 5,288,408 Feb. 22, 1994
Benoit Dutre & Gun Tragardh, Purification of Gelatin by Ultrafiltration with a Forced
Solvent Stream along the Membrane Permeate Side: An Experimental Approach, 25 J. Food
Engineering 233 (1995)(Dutre)
The Examiner states in the Answer that claims 71-83 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112,
¶ 1, § 102(b), and § 103 as set forth in Office Action, Paper No. 35 (Answer 6, § 10). We find
the following rejections under those grounds in Paper No. 35:
1. Claims 71-83 rejected under the written description requirement of 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 1;
2. Claim 72 rejected under the enablement requirement of 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 1;
1 The rejections made under 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 2 have been withdrawn (Answer 6, § 10).
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