Appeal No. 2005-2593 23
Application No. 90/005,867
103 is reversed.
M. Rejection of claims 35 and 36 under 35 U.S.C. § 103
Claims 35 and 36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over
the combined teachings of Fahy, Scow, Umbreit and Pierpaoli. Claim 35 reads as
follows:
35. A method of inhibiting physiological conditions associated
with biological aging comprising:
measuring hormone levels in a sample of an otherwise healthy
human subject’s blood to determine that the level of human growth
hormone and at least two of the supplemental hormones selected from the
group consisting of sex hormone, melatonin hormone, adrenal hormone,
thyroid hormone (T-3), and
thymus hormone are below pre-determined physiological levels for an
adult human; and
replenishing said level of human growth hormone and said at least
two supplemental hormones to pre-determined physiological levels.
The examiner argues that claim 35 defines nothing more than the use of two or
more conventional anti-aging agents. Answer at 35. We disagree. Similar to claims 1
and 10, the method of claim 35 requires (1) measuring hormone levels in a sample of
an otherwise healthy human subject’s blood, (2) determining that the levels of human
growth hormone and at least two of the listed supplemental hormones are below “pre-
determined” levels, and (3) replenishing the levels of those hormones to the “pre-
determined” levels.15
15 As in claims 1 and 10, we interpret claim 35 as requiring that the “pre-determined physiological levels”
of the hormones be determined in advance of at least the determining step, i.e., step (2).
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