Appeal No. 2006-0189 Page 8
Application No. 09/825,242
it to represent an entire zinc finger protein because the rest of the amino acid sequence
of each fusion protein was the same.
We agree with the examiner that those skilled in the art would have understood
Table 2 of Choo (PNAS) to represent fusion proteins comprising three zinc finger
domains: the variant shown in the table and two others that were common to all the
members of the library. However, we do not agree that that understanding overcomes
the deficiency of the reference.
All of the claims on appeal require the use of a database, not a library of physical
compounds, that includes designations for zinc finger proteins that include three zinc
finger domains, and “subdesignations for each of the three fingers of each of the zinc
finger proteins,” as well as the nucleic acid sequence bound by each of the zinc finger
proteins (i.e., the nine-nucleotide long sequence bound by the set of three zinc fingers).
The database disclosed by Choo (PNAS) includes only the information relevant
to the middle, variant zinc finger. It does not include subdesignations for the two
invariant zinc fingers in each fusion protein, nor does it include the full nucleotide
sequence bound by each of the fusion proteins. The cited references therefore do not
teach all of the limitations of the claimed method, and the examiner has not adequately
explained why a person of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify
the table/database of Choo (PNAS) to include the additional information.
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