Appeal No. 2006-0189 Page 5
Application No. 09/825,242
The examiner relied on Choo (PNAS) for teaching “a phage library comprising
zinc finger genes in which the middle of three fingers is randomized. . . [and] show[ing]
in figure 2 a database of selected and characterized library members.” Id. The
examiner relied on Corbi for its teaching of a zinc finger protein having three fingers,
and the target site bound by the protein. Id.
The examiner concluded that
[i]t would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the
time the invention was made to precharacterize the selected random
library members of Choo et al. [(Nature)] to any desired extent to aid in
further analysis of selected library members because Choo et al. [(PNAS)]
shows such analysis in figure 2 and pages 11164-11167. It would have
been further obvious to record such characterizations in a database as
shown in Choo et al. [(PNAS)] figure 2. . . . It would have been further
obvious to add other known zinc finger proteins and their binding
specificities such as the Mago zinc finger protein of Corbi et al. to further
increase the diversity of choices available in the database.
Id., page 6.
Appellants argue that, “even assuming arguendo that the cited references are
properly combined, the references neither individually or in combination provide any
disclosure of a database comprising designations for a plurality of three-finger zinc
finger proteins, subdesignations for each of three fingers for each zinc finger protein,
and their corresponding target nucleic acid sequences, as specified in claim[s] 35, 50,
48, 49, and 53.” Appeal Brief, page 6 - 7. Appellants reason as follows:
The tables shown in Figs. 2 of the respective Choo references . . . provide
designations for only a single finger of a multi-finger zinc finger protein and
neither presents a target sequence with three triplets. Although the
physical zinc finger proteins, from which the information discussed in the
cited references was obtained, may inherently have had three zinc fingers,
these physical proteins are not components of a database. If Fig. 2 of
either Choo reference is viewed as a database, then the database is
composed of the typewritten data in the tables. These typewritten data do
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007