Appeal No. 2006-0108
Application No. 09/980,620
effective amount of theanine to moderate or ameliorate a sleep disorder selected
from the group consisting of insomnia, vigilance in middle of sleep, vigilance in
early morning and disturbance of restful sleep.” As sleeplessness encompasses
“disturbance of restful sleep,” I would affirm the rejection of this claim for the
same reason I would affirm the rejection of claim 8.
Finally, I agree with the majority that the obviousness rejection of claims
22-24 should be reversed, but for different reasons than the majority.
Claim 22 is drawn to a method of promoting sleep in a human having a
sleep disorder, wherein the human suffers from insomnia. In claim 23, the sleep
disorder is vigilance in middle of sleep, and claim 24 is vigilance in early morning.
While sleeplessness, and therefore disturbance of restful sleep, would be
understood by the ordinary artisan to be a side effect of caffeine, not so insomnia
or vigilance.
Thus, in my opinion, the examiner has established, by a preponderance of
the evidence, that claim 4 is anticipated by Kakuda, and that claims 5-9, 11, 20,
21 and 25-28 are rendered obvious by the combination of Kakuda and
Ekanayake, and I would affirm those rejections.
) BOARD OF PATENT
)
LORA M. GREEN ) APPEALS AND
Administrative Patent Judge )
) INTERFERENCES
18
Page: Previous 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007