Appeal No. 2006-0108
Application No. 09/980,620
1740 mg/kg appeared to exhibit the same effects as the control mice that were
given neither caffeine nor theanine. Id. Appellants conclude “that theanine is
effective if the dosage is increased 10 fold to 1740 mg/kg but is ineffective at a
dose of 174 mg/kg.” Id.
Appellants’ arguments are not found to be convincing. First, Kakuda
specifically teaches that the amount of theanine administered is relative to the
amount of caffeine administered, being preferably 10 times but no more than 500
times the amount of caffeine ingested. See id. at Col. 2, lines 48-51.
In addition, in Example 1, Kakuda teaches that the increase in
spontaneous movement in the group of mice that ingested 174 mg/kg of theanine
along with the caffeine was more inhibited than the group consuming caffeine
alone, and that the group that ingested 174 mg/kg of theanine did not
demonstrate an increasing trend, and that the amount of spontaneous movement
decreased slightly in the latter half of the experiment. See id. at Col. 3, line 59-
Col. 4, line 9. Moreover, Example 2 demonstrates that in rats that ingested the
same dose of caffeine as the mice in Example 1 and 50 mg/kg of theanine
demonstrated “the presence of caffeine stimulation inhibitory action due to the
antagonistic action of caffeine on caffeine.” Id. at Col. 4, lines 60-64. Thus,
when the Kakuda reference is read as a whole, it does not teach away from the
dose of claim 5.
With respect to the obviousness rejection of claims 21 and 25-27, claim 21
is representative. Claim 21 is drawn to “[a] method for promoting sleep in a
human having a sleep disorder, comprising: administering to a human an
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